in 
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7*  Jl 


Of  this  special  limited  edition  of 

LITTLE  Miss  DEE 
there  have  been  printed,  in  No- 
vembcr,  Nineteen  Hundred  and 
jFour,  one  hundred  and  fifty-six 
copies,  of  which  this  is  number 

JS 


Little  Miss  Dee 


r-rfe 


LITTLE   MISS    DEE 


BY 

ROSWELL    FIELD 


CHICAGO 
FLEMING   H.    REVELL   COMPANY 

MCMIV 


• 


COPYRIGHT 

19O4 
BY   FLEMING  H.  KEVE:L:L,  COMPANY 


<To  the  Memory  of  Her 


KH2S584 


Little  Miss  Dee 

WHEN  the  bugles  sounded  the 
charge,  and  Lieutenant  Dee,  his 
sword  pointed  toward  the  enemy,  led  the 
onslaught  that  marked  the  beginning  of  the 
glorious  rout  at  Palo  Alto,  all  the  world 
would  have  wondered  if  all  the  world  had 
enjoyed  those  facilities  which  are  notable 
accessories  to  our  present  heroism.  That 
this  valiant  officer  has  not  figured  more 
prominently  in  the  proud  military  record  of 
his  country  must  be  attributed,  in  part  at 
least,  to  the  unfortunate  length  of  time 
elapsing  between  the  accomplishment  of  a 
valorous  deed  and  its  announcement  to  ad 
miring  and  appreciative  fellow-countrymen. 
True  heroism  did  not  receive  its  immediate 
and  full  reward  until  telegraphic  communi 
cation  had  been  securely  established. 

If    Major   Nicholas   Dee,    late   of    the 
American  army  of    invasion  in  Mexico, 
9 


Little  Miss  Dee 


could  have  taken  the  discriminating  public 
into  his  confidence,  and  spoken  with  that 
amiable  confidence  which  characterizes  the 
confessions  of  a  recognized  veteran,  he 
would  have  contended  that  much  family 
adversity  had  been  caused  by  the  thought 
less,  and  possibly  malicious,  remark  of  a 
gypsy  three  centuries  before.  It  was  not 
the  Major's  habit  to  discourse  in  public  on 
his  private  affairs,  and  perhaps  even  this 
revelation  does  violence  to  the  proprieties 
that  should  be  observed  in  the  case  of  a 
chivalrous  and  modest  gentleman,  but  it  is 
essential  to  a  full  understanding  of  the  em 
barrassment  under1  which  the  Dees,  collec 
tively  and  individually,  had  labored  since 
the  strolling  fortune-teller  was  prompted 
to  fire  the  family  ardor. 

This  communication  in  itself  would  be 
necessarily  of  considerable  antiquity,  for 
the  American  forces  withdrew  from  Mexico 
more  than  half  a  century  ago,  and  the  val 
iant  Major  did  not  survive  that  imperish 
able  but  somewhat  equivocal  campaign 
many  years.  More  than  this,  the  Major 

10 


Little  Miss  Dee 


had  personal  and  delicate  reasons  for  de 
clining  to  introduce  the  public  to  family 
secrets,  and  his  sensitiveness  was  in  no 
wise  decreased  by  the  fact  that,  so  far  as 
outward  demonstrations  showed,  the  gypsy 
lady  had  been  guilty  of  palpable  deceit. 
A  man  may  be  brave  enough  to  admit  that 
he  is  in  the  wrong,  and  that  he  has  gone 
through  life  the  victim  of  an  amiable  delu 
sion,  but  he  is  hardly  so  bold  as  to  acknowl 
edge  that  his  family  has  been  humbugged 
through  a  dozen  generations,  and  that  the 
last  is  no  wiser  than  the  first.  As  a  man 
of  proper  family  pride,  Major  Nicholas 
Dee  stood  nobly  by  his  -ancestors. 

It  came  about  in  this  way.  Three,  or 
it  may  have  been  four  or  five,  hundred 
years  ago,  the  Dees  were  living  in  Eng 
land,  presumably  in  comfortable  circum 
stances.  The  family  record  is  not  avail 
able,  and  for  that  matter  it  is  of  no  special 
public  interest  what  our  ancestors  were 
doing  before  or  in  the  time  of  the  Tudors. 
The  tradition  only  concerns  us,  and  the 
tradition  is  perfectly  established  that  the 
ii 


Little  Miss  Dee 


Dees  were  excellent  subjects,  faithful  to 
their  creed,  and  loyal  to  their  king.  So 
many  Dees  of  eminent  repute  are  now  liv 
ing  in  Anglo-Saxon  countries  that  it  would 
be  manifestly  unwise  and  ungenerous  to 
go  into  minute  particulars,  hence  it  shall 
not  be  put  down  whether  it  was  at  a  castle 
or  a  plain  country  gentleman's  dwelling 
that  the  gypsy  appeared  one  day,  and  for  a 
small  consideration  delivered  her  prophecy 
in  the  interesting,  but  occasionally  baffling, 
language  of  the  period.  Divested  of  its 
mediaeval  phraseology,  and  reduced  to  mod 
ern  English,  the  prophecy  may  be  repeated 
thus:  v 

The  ancient  family  of  Dee 

A  hero  in  its  line  shall  see; 

A  hundred  years  may  yet  elapse, 

Two  hundred  years,  or  three,  perhaps; 

But  all  in  time  a  lustrous  deed 

Shall  from  this  race  and  stock'proceed ; 

Though  how,  or  when,  or  even  where, 

Prophetic  lips  may  not  declare. 

Possibly  if  the  canny  Dee  to  whom  this 
comforting  prediction  had  been  delivered 
had  been  a  little  more  liberal  in  his  remu- 
12 


Little  Miss  Dee 


neration,  the  gypsy  lady  would  have  re 
lented  and  have  been  more  specific  in  her 
bill  of  particulars,  but  she  doubtless  con 
sidered  that  she  had  given  him  the  full 
value  of  his  money,  and  when  the  gentle 
man,  urged  by  the  upbraiding  and  curios 
ity  of  his  wife,  sought  her  out  with  new 
inducements  for  further  information,  she 
had  vanished,  and  the  golden  moment  had 
fled.  The  penurious  gentleman  died  with 
out  fulfilling  the  prophecy,  and  was  suc 
ceeded  by  his  son,  who  was  similarly 
unsuccessful,  and  so  the  family  lived  along 
from  one  generation  to  another,  very  hon 
estly  and  reputably,  but  in  no  way  giving 
unusual  signs  of  extraordinary  heroism  or 
dazzling  promises  of  a  lustrous  deed. 

In  the  troubled  days  of  the  Stuarts  the 
inheritor  of  the  gypsy  prophecy  stood  val 
iantly  by  his  king,  and  cursed  and  fought 
the  Roundheads  with  equal  vigor,  and  when 
Cromwell  came  into  power  and  heads  began 
to  tumble,  Richard  Dee  was  among  the 
first  of  the  cavaliers  to  turn  his  back  on 
his  country  and  seek  a  new  home  across 
'3 


Little  Miss  Dee 


the  water  in  the  pleasant  land  of  Virginia. 
The  years  had  gone  swiftly,  the  family 
had  lived  apparently  up  to  its  opportuni 
ties,  and  had  passed  through  turmoil,  re 
volt,  and  bloodshed,  but  the  prophecy  was 
unfulfilled,  and  the  hero  was  unrevealed, 
when  Nicholas  Dee,  in  direct  descent,  suc 
ceeded  to  the  family  acres  and  the  family 
mission. 

The  conditions  under  which  the  Dees 
had  lived  for  a  century  and  a  half  were  not 
exactly  conducive  to  deeds  of  heroism,  as 
commonly  understood,  and  Nicholas,  who 
had  a  martial  soul  in  a  somewhat  lethargic 
body,  and  who  was  appreciably  ashamed 
of  the  inability  of  his  family  to  live  up  to 
the  prophecy  which  had  been  drummed 
into  him  in  infancy,  applied  for  and  re 
ceived  a  military  education  to  put  himself 
in  a  position  to  redeem  the  family  name. 
Unfortunately  the  opportunities  for  hero 
ism  in  military  operations  were  not  forth 
coming,  and  for  years  Lieutenant  Dee 
dragged  out  an  existence  varied  only  in  its 
weariness  by  a  thrifty  marriage  and  the 
'4 


Little  Miss  Dee 


birth  of  a  little  girl.  The  rosy  ambitions 
of  vindicating  the  gypsy's  word  which 
Nicholas  might  have  entertained  were  fast 
vanishing  when  the  troubles  broke  out 
along  the  Mexican  border.  Lieutenant 
Dee  was  with  General  Taylor  when  that 
eminent  soldier  issued  marching  orders,  and 
was  promptly  the  first  to  fall  at  the  glori 
ous  battle  of  Palo  Alto. 

But  though  the  fates  decreed  so  un 
kindly,  Nicholas  fell  with  great  credit  to 
himself,  and  with  so  many  and  such  diver 
sified  wounds  that  his  recovery  was  con 
sidered  impossible.  That  he  should  live  to 
return  to  his  home  and  family  was  miracu 
lous;  that  he  should  be  henceforth  unfit 
either  for  military  service  or  arduous  physi 
cal  labor  was  a  concession  on  the  part  of 
Providence, "for  which,  many  of  his  neigh 
bors  argued,  he  should  be  profoundly  grate 
ful.  As  for  his  own  opinions  on  the  sub 
ject,  the  public  would  be  forced  to  ask  him 
for  another  grant  of  confidence,  so  grimly 
did  he  bear  himself  under  this  cruel  and 
seemingly  final  blow  to  his  hopes.  It  has 
15 


Little  Miss  Dee 


been  already  hinted  that  like  a  wise  and 
prudent  soldier  Nicholas  Dee  had  provided 
himself  with  a  wife  with  a  comfortable  for 
tune  in  her  own  right,  and  his  country,  if 
only  to  prove  that  republics  are  not  neces 
sarily  ungrateful,  gave  him  a  little  pension; 
so,  by  means  of  this  aggregated  wealth,  the 
veteran,  his  wife,  and  little  Agatha,  now  in 
her  twelfth  year,  were  enabled  to  face  the 
world  with  no  bitterer  thoughts  than  sympa 
thetic  regret  for  the  misfortune  of  the 
husband  and  father,  and  concern  for  the 
unfulfillment  of  the  gypsy  prophecy. 

Strangely  enough,  with  a  complete 
knowledge  of  his  ruined  health  and  shat 
tered  body,  and  of  the  further  fact  that  he 
was  well  advanced  in  middle  life,  the  pen 
sioner  could  not  quite  relinquish  the  idea 
that  through  him  the  Dees  were  to  be  im 
mortalized,  and  the  human  race  distinctly 
benefited.  He  argued  to  himself,  very 
plausibly,  that  lustrous  deeds  are  not  con 
fined  to  feats  of  arms,  and  that  there  are 
many  acts  of  true  heroism,  and  to  the 
human  advantage,  in  no  way  connected 
16 


Little  Miss  Dee 


with  a  martial  career  and  the  storming  of 
cities.  Why  would  it  not  be  possible  for 
him,  crippled  though  he  might  be,  to  seek 
in  another  field  that  imperishable  renown 
which  was  destined  to  be  the  reward  of  his 
race?  He  discussed  the  matter  earnestly 
with  his  wife,  but  that  estimable  lady,  while 
conjugally  sympathizing  with  his  ambitions, 
was  too  indolent  and  inert  to  attach  vast 
importance  to  the  utterances  of  a  strolling 
gypsy  in  search  of  a  fee,  more  especially 
since  they  involved  considerable  physical 
trouble,'  and  she  intimated  that  so  far  as 
the  matter  concerned  her  she  was  satisfied 
with  well  enough  and  disposed  to  let  it 
alone.  This  exhibition  of  philosophy  tem 
porarily  disconcerted  Nicholas,  but  as  a 
gentleman  with  enfeebled  body  and  no 
pressing  occupation  has  plenty  of  time  to 
think,  his  dreams  and  desires  returned 
regularly,  not  a  little  intensified  by  the 
periods  of  rest. 

Mrs.  Dee,  who  had  been  Betty  Calverley 
and  a  distant  connection  of  the  Dee  family, 
had  married  contrary  to  the  wishes  of  her 
17 


Little  Miss  Dee 


father,  who  objected  to  the  young  soldier, 
principally  because  he  was  unstable  and 
visionary.  In  justice  to  Nicholas  it  may 
be  explained  that  'Squire  Calverley 
regarded  every  young  man  of  property 
visionary  if  he  betrayed  the  slightest  symp 
toms  of  a  desire  to  break  away  from  the 
refinements  of  an  indolent,  easy-going  life. 
It  was  lamentably  true  of  Betty  Calverley 
that  she  suffered  from  periodic  fits  of  men 
tal  aberration,  and  the  old  'Squire  always 
insisted  that  she  was  afflicted  with  dementia 
when  she  married  Dee,  though  this  state 
ment  could  never  be  backed  up  by  convin 
cing  evidence.  Nevertheless,  it  did  happen 
that  in  later  life  the  spells  of  madness  be 
came  more  frequent,  and  were  promptly 
attributed  by  her  family  to  the  perversity 
of  the  husband. 

The  more  thought  the  pensioner  gave  to 
the  subject  of  the  prophecy  the  more  that 
which  had  been  merely  a  gentle  stimulus 
became  a  passion,  until  finally  it  absorbed 
his  whole  nature,  and  was  looked  upon  by 
his  wife  and  those  who  were  in  his  confi- 
18 


Little  Miss  Dee 


dence  as  an  irritating  mania.  It  was 
pointed  out  to  him  very  clearly  that  what 
ever  is  to  be  will  be;  that  heroes  are  de 
veloped  by  force  of  circumstances,  and  that 
the  will  of  Providence  is  not  to  be  changed 
or  hurried  by  the  machinations  of  man. 
This  theory  of  predestination,  however,  did 
not  convert  Nicholas  Dee,  who  replied  with 
much  spirit  that  Providence  helps  him  who 
helps  himself,  and  that  a  man  must  put 
himself  in  the  way  of  opportunity,  not  wait 
ing  for  opportunity  to  rise  up  and  smite 
him.  Meanwhile,  pending  these  argu 
ments  back  and  forth,  the  family  lived 
comfortably,  and  to  all  intents  and  pur 
poses  the  human  race  seemed  to  be  pros 
pering  and  enjoying  life  as  it  came. 

To  add  to  the  discontent  of  Nicholas, 
many  of  those  whom  he  had  known  in 
childhood  had  packed  up  their  belongings 
and  moved  to  the  West,  and  there  came 
back  to  him  marvelous  stories  of  adventure 
and  prosperity,  with  the  further  allure 
ment  of  adventure  yet  to  come  in  a  coun 
try  scarcely  in  the  infancy  of  development. 


Little  Miss  Dee 


They  told  him  of  a  wonderful  town  on  the 
bank  of  a  great  river,  the  possibilities  of 
which  defied  exaggeration,  and  the  soul  of 
the  old  pensioner  was  fired  as  it  had  not 
been  thrilled  since  the  day  of  the  march 
into  Mexico.  He  conferred  again  with  his 
wife,  argued  incessantly  and  unwearyingly, 
demonstrated  forcefully  the  folly  of  a  hum 
drum  existence  in  a  community  from  which 
all  that  was  reminiscent  had  vanished,  and 
by  his  prayers  and  pleadings  so  exhausted 
the  long-suffering  woman  that  she  reluc 
tantly  yielded  to  his  importunities  and  con 
sented  to  accompany  him  whither  his  ardent 
spirit  and  infirm  body  might  lead.  By  this 
reprehensible  method  Nicholas  Dee  con 
trived  to  establish  himself  in  his  new  home 
in  the  Middle  West  in  eager  expectation  of 
the  adventure  which  was  to  justify  his 
foresight. 

To  one  unacquainted  with  the  motives 
which  controlled  all  the  actions  of  the  old 
pensioner  it  would  have  seemed  that  he 
had  been  guided  by  unusual  intelligence. 
His  new  home,  which  overlooked  the  river 

20 


Little  Miss  Dee 


and  the  rolling  country  beyond,  with  its 
terraced  garden  and  great  forest  trees,  was 
regularly  and  honorably  saluted  by  the 
steamers  as  they  passed  up  and  down,  and 
was  pointed  out  to  passengers  by  admiring 
captains  as  an  amazing  illustration  of 
opulence.  The  town  itself,  which  the  inhab 
itants  firmly  believed  might  become  eventu 
ally  the  national  capital,  was  thrifty  and 
progressive  for  the  period,  and  apparently 
there  was  nothing  wanting  to  gratify  the 
reasonable  wishes  of  a  home-seeker. 
Nicholas  himself,  once  established,  was 
treated  with  the  most  deferential  considera 
tion  by  his  new  friends  and  acquaintance, 
visibly  impressed  by  the  loftiness  of  his 
views  on  all  topics,  and  he  was  at  once 
dignified  by  the  title  of  Major,  as  a  fitting 
tribute  to  one  who  had  survived  the  hor 
rors  of  war  and  was  in  full  enjoyment  of  a 
pension  from  an  appreciative  country. 

Two  things  conspired  to  dampen  the 
ardor  of  Nicholas  Dee  in  his  quest  of  ad 
venture.  Though  universally  admired  and 
respected  for  his  amiable  qualities  and  his 

21 


Little  Miss  Dee 


large  assertion  of  public  spirit,  his  political 
convictions  were  wholly  at  variance  with 
the  opinions  of  his  neighbors  and  fellow- 
citizens,  and  whatever  thoughts  of  a  public 
career  he  may  have  entertained  were  sud 
denly  and  cruelly  dissipated.  "It  is  really 
amazing/'  he  confessed,  mournfully,  to 
his  wife,  "how  we  Dees  have  always  man 
aged  to  get  on  the  unpopular  side  of  every 
public  question.  I  dare  say,"  he  added, 
"that  if  my  great  ancestor  had  been  dis 
loyal  and  unscrupulous  enough  to  associate 
himself  with  Cromwell  instead  of  King 
Charles — God  bless  him! — I  should  be  at 
this  moment  governor  of  Massachusetts,  or 
some  other  dignitary  of  wealth  and  impor 
tance  in  a  Yankee  commonwealth,  instead 
of  subjecting  myself  to  the  humiliation  of 
living  out  here  and  being  ignominiously 
beaten  in  a  candidacy  for  the  legislature. ' ' 
He  paused  and  then  said,  reflectively,  and 
with  a  return  of  cheerfulness,  "After  all, 
that  would  not  have  fulfilled  the  prophecy, 
for  I  can  see  nothing  heroic  or  beneficial  in 
either." 

23 


Little  Miss  Dee 


The  second  calamity  that  overtook 
Nicholas  Dee  was  the  death  of  his  wife, 
who  never  entirely  forgave  herself  for 
yielding  so  spiritlessly  to  her  husband's 
thirst  for  adventure,  and  who  had  found  it 
impossible  to  reconcile  herself  to  her  new 
surroundings.  Indeed,  it  had  been  staunchly 
maintained  by  the  members  of  her  father's 
family,  who  cherished  the  old  tradition,  that 
Nicholas  had  secured  her  consent  and  had 
made  the  change  of  home  at  a  time  when 
she  was  mentally  irresponsible.  This  Mrs. 
Dee  had  loyally  denied,  but  it  remained  an 
open  and  vexatious  question.  The  blow 
of  her  taking  away  fell  at  a  time  when 
Nicholas  had  been  investing  rather  too 
freely  in  various  Quixotic  enterprises,  but 
not  before  the  watchful  woman,  taking 
advantage  of  a  period  of  sanity,  and  under 
standing  the  nature  of  her  husband,  had 
cautiously  put  the  family  home  and  the 
remnant  of  her  fortune  in  the  name  of  her 
daughter,  who  was  already  exhibiting  quali 
ties  somewhat  at  variance  with  the  laws  of 
inheritance. 

23 


Little  Miss  Dee 


The  old  man,  aged  by  infirmities  rather 
than  by  years,  never  fully  recovered  his 
confidence  and  his  spirits  after  his  com 
rade  and  helper  had  left  him.  "And  to 
think/'  he  sighed,  pathetically,  "that  she 
should  leave  me  just  at  the  time  when  I 
was  at  the  point  of  accomplishing  the  pur 
pose  of  the  family!'* 

Alas  for  Nicholas  Dee,  dreamer  of 
dreams,  and  pursuer  of  phantoms!  Alas 
for  us  all,  impeded  and  distracted  by  the 
allurements  of  visions  never  to  materialize, 
of  fancies  never  to  be  effected!  It  was 
not  the  less  pathetic  that  the  old  pensioner 
actually  believed  his  own  words  and  trusted 
in  them,  that  the  shadows  which  came  with 
every  disappointment  were  dispelled  by  the 
deluding  light  of  further  dreaming. 


FROM  the  time  that  Agatha  Dee  had 
acquired  the  distinction  of  young 
womanhood,  it  had  not  been  quite  satis 
factorily  explained  why  she  was  spoken  of 
as  "Little  Miss  Dee.5'  Little  she  cer 
tainly  was  not,  in  the  ordinary  acceptation 
of  the  word,  for  at  the  shortest  she  was 
above  the  ordinary  height,  and  the  most 
careless  glance  would  have  compelled  the 
admission  that  her  weight  was  amply  in 
proportion;  so  the  explanation  was  of  ne 
cessity  sought  in  other  directions.  Possibly 
the  most  reasonable  deduction  was  that  she 
had  come  naturally  by  the  affectionate 
diminutive,  and  by  the  continued  qualities 
of  graciousness  had  retained  it.  Whatever 
truth  may  have  lain  in  this  conclusion,  it 
remained  a  fact  that  "Little  Miss  Dee" 
she  had  been  and  "Little  Miss  Dee"  she 
was  destined  to  be  to  the  end  of  her  cheery 
existence. 

Agatha    Dee,    when   all    her    personal 


Little  Miss  Dee 


charms  were  considered,  may  not  have 
been  wholly  the  type  of  feminine  beauty 
an  ambitious  romancist  would  select  as  the 
heroine  of  a  stirring  love  story.  Even  with 
the  responsibilities  of  a  family  prophecy 
resting  upon  her,  Agatha  would  have  con 
fessed  candidly  and  humbly  that  the  possi 
bilities  of  achieving  fame  and  fortune  by 
the  usual  methods  of  feminine  loveliness 
were  not  alluring;  yet,  notwithstanding 
this  discouraging  confession,  her  person 
ality  was  attractive.  Her  figure  was  good, 
her  features,  rather  large,  were  in  propor 
tion,  her  firm  chin  showed  decision,  and 
her  nose  indicated  intellect.  The  great 
gray  eyes  with  the  long  lashes  and  the  dark 
brows  were  the  dominant  feature  of  a  face 
which,  if  it  fell  short  in  the  softer  lines  of 
merely  physical  beauty,  was  engaging  in 
the  character  portrayed,  and  when  Agatha 
shook  out  the  brownish  black  hair  that 
tumbled  over  her  shoulders  and  fell  down 
below  her  waist,  many  an  acknowledged 
fair  might  have  sighed  with  envy. 

And  Little  Miss  Dee  knew  what  it  was 
26 


Little  Miss  Dee 


to  be  admired  and  loved  for  qualities  other 
than  the  charm  of  beauty;  for  the  gentle 
ness  of  her  nature,  the  sunniness  of  her 
disposition,  and  the  sympathetic  generosity 
of  a  heart  that  always  responded  impul 
sively  to  appeal  justified  the  affection  she 
inspired.  No  seer  or  fortune-teller  or 
palmister  came  into  her  young  life  to  whis 
per  large  promises  of  happiness  and  wealth, 
or  disturb  her  in  the  serenity  of  the  peace 
ful  years  of  childhood,  and  she  grew  up 
content  with  her  little  world,  satisfied  with 
the  innocent  conquest  of  those  around  her, 
and  believing  that  away  from  the  environ 
ment  of  such  love  and  tenderness  no  greater 
joy  was  possible. 

The  passing  of  Mrs.  Dee  had  marked 
the  surrender  of  the  old  pensioner  to  the 
inevitable.  To  be  scrupulously  exact,  his 
efforts  had  been  more  in  the  line  of  plot 
ting  than  of  practice,  but  even  this  amiable 
weakness  was  now  crushed  out  of  him. 
"It  is  not  for  me,"  he  said  to  Agatha, 
when  he  had  formally  summoned  her  to  a 
consultation,  and  had  solemnly  declared  his 
27 


Little  Miss  Dee 


determination  to  abandon  all  enterprises 
tending  to  the  rehabilitation  of  the  family 
bugbear;  "the  curse  of  the  family  is  on 
me,  and  I  must  bow  before  it. ' '  • 

"But,  father, "  said  Agatha,  rather 
wearily  perhaps,  for  she  was  familiar  with 
this  announcement,  "I  do  not  presume  to 
object  to  your  way  of  putting  it,  but  really 
I  cannot  see  why  the  curse,  as  you  call  it, 
should  disturb  us.  We  are  comfortably 
off;  we  have  a  beautiful  home;  our  neigh 
bors  are  very  kind;  and  everybody  looks 
up  to  you  and  loves  and  admires  you,  even 
if  you  have  not  been  elected  to  office  as 
you  hoped.  It  is  not  our  fault  that  the 
people  here  happen  to  be  wrong  in  their 
political  views. ' ' 

The  old  man  was  pained.  "I  am  sur 
prised,  ' '  he  said,  chidingly, '  'that  you  should 
think  that  such  trifles  could  worry  me. 
You  forget  the  prophecy,  my  dear.  You 
forget  that  from  our  family  is  to  proceed  a 
hero  who  is  to  perform  a  deed  that  will 
give  us  an  imperishable  name." 

"I  am  not  likely  to  forget  that,  father," 
28 


Little  Miss  Dee 


said  Agatha,  with  a  faint  smile,  as  she 
patted  the  old  man's  head;  "but  weren't 
you  a  hero  when  you  stood  up  at  Palo 
Alto  before  the  enemy  and  permitted 
yourself  to  be  shot  to  pieces?  Didn't 
the  newspapers  give  you  full  credit  for 
your  heroism,  and  aren't  you  wearing  a 
medal  for  your  bravery?  Certainly  I  can't 
see  how  the  prophecy  can  ask  anything 
more  than  that  without  being  most  unreas 
onable." 

"That  was  a  mere  trifle,"  interrupted 
the  veteran,  hastily,  "and  has  nothing  to 
do  with  the  prophecy  which  speaks  for 
more  glorious  achievements.  I  don't 
mean  to  say  that  I  might  not  have  accom 
plished  something  truly  valorous  if  I  had 
had  a  chance,  but  what  chance  has  a  man 
when  the  first  time  he  goes  into  action  he 
is  crippled  by  a  few  wandering  bullets,  and 
that,  too,  before  the  battle  has  fairly  begun? 
My  old  general  has  been  elected  to  the 
Presidency,  and  many  of  my  comrades 
have  gained  distinction  in  Congress,  while 
I  must  content  myself  with  the  reflection 
29 


Little  Miss  Dee 


that  only  for  an  'if    I,  too,  might  have 
been  heard  of  in  the  world. ' ' 

"The  world  is  a  large  place,"  said 
Agatha,  looking  out  of  the  window  and 
over  to  the  prairie  which  lay  beyond  the 
river. 

"Still,"  persisted  the  old  man,  "I  am 
sure  that  I  should  have  been  heard  of  if  it 
had  not  been  for  the  curse  of  our  family, 
the  fatality  which  has  pursued  us  and  has 
found  means  to  thwart  us  just  as  fame  and 
fortune  were  in  our  reach.  The  invention 
of  your  great-uncle  Caleb  startled  the 
scientific  world,  but  he  was  robbed  both  of 
the  fame  and  the  fruits  of  his  genius  by  the 
unscrupulous  capitalist  who  bought  his 
brains. ' ' 

"It  seems  to  me,"  suggested  the  girl  a 
little  mischievously,  "that  if  Uncle  Caleb's 
suggestion  startled  the  world  he  came  very 
near  fulfilling  the  prophecy.  Perhaps  it 
would  have  been  the  same,  however,  if  he 
had  not  been  robbed,  for  after  all  it  was 
only  the  scientific  world. ' ' 

The  old  pensioner  was  disconcerted.     ' '  I 
30 


Little  Miss  Dee 


never  thought  of  that,"  he  said  at  last. 
"  Really  if  I  could  believe  it  I  should  be 
quite  happy.  And  there  was  my  cousin 
Calverley, "  he  went  on  with  sudden 
energy,  "he  was  a  famous  writer,  though 
in  a  small  way.  One  night  he  outlined  the 
plot  of  a  story  to  a  friend,  and  the  miser 
able  dog  actually  stole  the  whole  thing  and 
dated  a  successful  career  as  a  novelist 
purely  from  the  use  of  that  suggestion. 
My  grandfather,  when  he  was  a  member 
of  the  Virginia  legislature,  drafted  a  bill 
which  upturned  the  whole  state  and  be 
came  a  national  issue,  but  another  member 
presented  it,  and  it  passed  under  his  name 
and  made  him  famous.  Even  I,  with  the 
prospect  of  a  renowned  military  career, 
suffered  from  the  ill  luck  that  seems  to 
have  maliciously  pursued  us. ' ' 

"In  other  words" — and  this  with  a  touch 
of  gayety — "you  won  the  battle  of  Palo 
Alto,  and  your  luckier  comrades  profited 
by  it.  Dear  old  daddy,  it  was  a  shame, 
wasn't  it?" 

"It  may  have  been  so.  At  all  events 
31 


Little  Miss  Dee 


they  won  their  way  into  the  national  life 
while  I  received  a  medal  which  nobody 
remembers  except  you  and  myself.  I 
don't  say  this  repiningly;  I  merely  wish  to 
illustrate  the  strange  caprice  of  fate  which 
has  dealt  so  unkindly  with  our  family.  But 
though  I  have  failed,  as  others  have  failed 
before  me,  we  need  not  utterly  despair. 
You  are  still  left." 

Then  Agatha  threw  her  head  back  and 
laughed.  "I?"  she  exclaimed.  "And 
pray  what  can  I  do,  since  you  and  grand 
father  and  your  cousin  and  Uncle  Caleb 
and  fifteen  generations  of  Dees  have 
failed?" 

"Bless  me,  I  don't  know,"  frankly  re 
plied  the  veteran,  "but  I  do  know  that  we 
have  done  nothing,  and  there  is  not  a  word 
in  the  prophecy  that  makes  any  sex  dis 
tinction  or  indicates  that  you  or  any  other 
female  descendant  may  not  succeed  where 
we  have  fallen  down.  And  the  age  of 
miracles  has  not  passed,"  he  added,  rather 
ungallantly. 

Agatha  smiled,  quizzically.  "I  am  still 
33 


Little  Miss  Dee 


young,  father,"  she  said,  "and  there  may 
be  some  hope  and  consolation  in  that,  but 
I  am  afraid  'I  am  fated  to  be  neither  heroic 
nor  lustrous,  and  I  am  certainly  not  very 
imposing" — this  rather  plaintively — "still 
it  is  a  pleasant  prospect  you  are  holding 
out  to  me,  and  I  hope  I  shall  be  equal  to 
your  expectations. ' ' 

Such  conversations  were  not  infrequent 
in  the  Dee  household,  and  Agatha,  whether 
from  a  sense  of  humor  within  proper  femi 
nine  limits  or  from  a  gentle  filial  instinct, 
yielded  to  her  father's  whim,  and  even 
encouraged  him  to  believe  that  she  had 
serious  ideas  of  coming  to  the  rescue  of  the 
family.  "Not,"  she  would  have  unequivo 
cally  admitted,  "that  I  see  in  myself  the 
faintest  evidences  of  a  heroine,  or  the 
slightest  traces  of  luster,  and  not  that  I 
find  much  opportunity  for  glorious  deeds 
in  a  little  country  town,  but  it  eases  fath 
er's  mind,  and  is  perfectly  harmless  pro 
vided  I  do  not  permit  the  idea  to  take 
possession  of  me."  How  could  Agatha 
Dee  know  that  the  daughter  of  a  visionary 
33 


Little  Miss  Dee 


father  and  an  unbalanced  ^mother  could  not 
play  with  hallucinations,  though  apparently 
harmless?  So  the  days  went  on,  and  in 
the  intervals  of  practical  domestic  monot 
ony  the  young  woman  discharged  the  ordi 
nary  duties  of  her  calling  and  entered 
heartily  into  such  pleasures  as  came  into 
her  youth. 

In  spite  of  the  handicap  of  an  unfulfilled 
mission  and  the  pressing  weight  of  several 
centuries  of  family  responsibility,  Little 
Miss  Dee  lived  the  placid  life  of  her  en 
vironment  with  such  occasional  irruptions 
of  excitement  as  the  dissipations  of  a  small 
town  can  afford.  From  time  to  time  lov 
ers  came  on  a  solemn  office,  for  it  was 
natural  enough  that  the  daughter  of  Nicho 
las  Dee,  considered  an  heiress  as  the  peo 
ple  and  the  period  went,  should  find  favor 
with  those  of  her  own  set  who  constituted 
the  aristocracy  of  the  county.  But  back 
in  Virginia,  before  the  fever  of  adventure 
had  afflicted  Nicholas,  Agatha  had  known 
and  shyly  loved  Herbert  Ainslie,  the  son 
of  the  village  carpenter,  and  not  even  the 
34 


Little  Miss  Dee 


assurance  that  he  was  a  good  carpenter 
could  reconcile  the  Dees  to  the  horrors  of 
a  possible  misalliance.  Her  mother's  fam 
ily  was  equally  scandalized.  That  the 
daughter  of  a  Calverley  should  have  mar 
ried  a  Dee  was  humiliating  enough;  that 
her  daughter  should  by  any  possibility  take 
even  a  childish  interest  in  the  son  of  a  car 
penter  was  a  thought  not  to  be  endured. 

The  Ainslies  had  preceded  the  Dees  in 
the  Western  invasion,  and  it  must  have 
been  what  the  Major  called  the  "family  ill 
luck"  that  so  contrived  it  that  the  two 
houses  should  be  again  pitted  against  each 
other  in  the  same  town.  Agatha  Dee  had 
been  brought  up  to  appreciate  the  full 
value  of  her  name  and  importance  in  her 
little  social  world,  but  she  was  shrewd 
enough  to  see  that  a  young  man  who  had 
made  the  most  of  his  opportunities  was 
infinitely  preferable  to  those  who  were 
satisfied  with  the  luck  of  birth,  and  she 
was  feminine  enough  to  believe  that  the 
heart  is  not  always  an  unsafe  guide  in  the 
affairs  of  love.  Herbert  Ainslie,  notwith- 
35 


Little  Miss  Dee 


standing  a  strange  mixture  of  dreaminess 
and  energy  which  were  continually  warring 
with  each  other,  had  a  certain  independence 
which  greatly  assisted  Agatha  in  coming  to 
this  conclusion.  If  it  ever  occurred  to  him 
that  the  son  of  a  carpenter  has  any  limita 
tions  which  prevent  him  from  making  any 
effort  in  life,  he  did  not  betray  it,  and  he 
lost  no  precious  time  in  securing  from  his 
early  friend  and  playmate  a  confession  of  her 
regard,  and  a  vague  and  indefinite  prom 
ise  of  loyalty  to  her  love.  With  this  infor 
mation  to  relieve  his  mind,  Herbert  watched 
the  arrival  of  other  claimants  with  gentle 
manly  indifference,  and  at  the  same  time 
was  more  amused  than  disconcerted  by  the 
attitude  of  the  suspicious  father,  whose 
dislike  was  now  intensified  by  the  suddenly 
conceived  idea  of  his  daughter's  mission. 
But  Herbert,  whose  impetuosity  of  youth 
was  by  no  means  overshadowed  by  his 
other  qualities,  and  who  had  a  lofty  mas 
culine  contempt  for  feminine  heroics,  had 
already  waited  as  long  as  he  felt  courtesy 
and  consideration  demanded;  and  as  he 
36 


Little  Miss  Dee 


was  now  in  a  position  to  maintain  an  estab 
lishment,  with  reasonable  deference  to 
modesty,  he  promptly  mentioned  that  fact 
to  Agatha,  and  intimated  that  her  prompt 
compliance  would  be  expected.  But 
Agatha,  who  was  not  wholly  without  spirit, 
and  who,  notwithstanding  the  sincerity  of 
her  affection,  did  not  relish  the  idea  of  such 
early  dictation,  demurred  vigorously.  It 
all  came  out  one  evening  as  they  sat  at  the 
end  of  the  garden  on  the  bluff  overlooking 
the  river  and  argued  the  question  in  its 
various  phases.  Agatha  had  just  delivered 
an  opinion  that  her  duty  to  her  father  was 
paramount  to  every  other  earthly  consider 
ation,  and  that  in  his  present  infirm  condi 
tion  she  could  listen  to  nothing  that  would 
jeopardize  his  peace  of  mind. 

"I  suppose  I  am  to  infer/'  said  Herbert, 
bitterly,  "that  any  reference  to  me  would 
destroy  your  father's  happiness." 

"We  both  have  reason  to  know,"  re 
plied  Agatha,  seriously,  "that  it  certainly 
would  not  add  to  it.  But  that  is  not  the 
question,  Herbert.  There  is  a  perfect 
37 


Little  Miss  Dee 


understanding  between  us — at  least  I  have 
thought  so — and  it  seems  most  unfortunate 
that  we  cannot  wait  a  little  longer. ' ' 

"A  little  longer?' '  echoed  the  lover. 
"It  seems  more  unfortunate  to  me  that 
there  is  no  definite  limit  to  this  period  of 
waiting,  and  that  you  do  not  care  to  realize 
that  I  have  been  loving  and  waiting  for  you 
all  the  years  we  have  been  together  since 
we  were  little  children. ' ' 

The  earnestness  of  his  tone  touched  her, 
and  she  knew  that  he  spoke  the  truth.  She 
might  have  given  in  to  his  pleading  had  not 
the  vision  of  the  old  father  in  his  infirmity 
come  up  before  her.  For  an  instant  she 
was  almost  angry  with  him  for  his  insist 
ence,  with  herself  for  the  call  of  duty. 
''While  we  have  taken  ourselves  seriously 
as  we  should,"  she  answered,  "there  was 
no  understanding  that  every  object  in  life 
should  give  way  to  this  incidental  and  rather 
selfish  programme  we  have  mapped  out. ' ' 
And  seeing  how  her  words  cut  him,  and 
how  he  winced  at  their  apparent  lightness, 
she  repented,  and  said,  more  gently,  "You 
38 


Little  Miss  Dee 


know,  Herbert,  there  are  duties  which  we 
must  take  into  account. ' ' 

"Even  the  fulfillment  of  the  family 
prophecy?" 

She  flushed  at  the  thrust.  "That  is 
ungenerous  and  unworthy  of  you/'  she 
answered;  "that  stupid  prophecy!  But 
since  you  are  pleased  to  include  it,  let  it 
go  at  that.  I  hardly  thought,  however, 
that  you  would  reproach  me  for  a  silly 
superstition  that  I  told  you  in  confidence, 
and  in  which,  as  you  well  know,  I  have 
not,  and  never  have  had,  the  slightest 
belief." 

Then  the  lover  grew  penitent  like  a  true 
knight.  "It  was  a  burst  of  idiocy,  I 
admit,"  he  cried,  "and  I  don't  deserve 
your  pardon,  but  think  how  much  this 
means  to  me,  and  'just  as  I  am  going 
away. ' ' 

"Going  away?"  The  girl  was  looking 
off  down  the  river,  not  trusting  herself  to 
say  more.  The  young  man,  too,  was 
silent,  He  was  thinking  of  what  lay  be 
yond  in  the  great  world  he  longed  to  enter, 
39 


Little  Miss  Dee 


of  the  fortune  he  might  gain,  of  the  glory 
he  should  win.  She  was  thinking  of  the 
little  life  that  had  rippled  along  so  gently 
and  easily,  and  which,  it  had  seemed  to 
her  in  the  carelessness  of  youth,  must  glide 
as  placidly  forever.  Was  it  yesterday,  or 
the  day  before,  that  she  and  Herbert 
Ainslie  had  played  together  as  children? 
Had  the  hour-hand  traveled  round  the 
clock  since  she  had  confessed  to  this  man 
that  she  loved  him?  Yet  already  he  spoke 
of  going  away.  This  was  the  man  in 
whom  she  had  believed,  in  whose  love  she 
had  trusted.  Her  woman's  mind  could 
not  understand  the  masculine  restlessness 
that  seemed  to  speak  for  inconstancy. 
How  differently  she  had  looked  at  their 
compact,  and  what  could  possibly  come  up 
in  the  way  of  worldly  ambition  that  could 
lead  her  away  from  him?  What  a  small 
and  wretched  creature  is  man,  and  how 
vain  are  his  pretensions  when  judged  by 
the  standard  of  a  woman's  faith! 

Agatha  was  still  looking  off  into  the  dis 
tance  and  wondering  if  such  could  be  the 
40 


Little  Miss  Dee 


nature  of  a  true  lover,  when  he  broke  the 
silence. 

"A  man  can't  waste  the  best  years  of 
his  life  in  a  stupid  little  country  town,  try 
ing  to  develop  by  village  methods,  and  I 
am  going  to  the  city  to  try  a  new  start. 
Can't  you  see  that  I  do  not  wish  to  make 
it  a  false  start,  Agatha?" 

The  reproach  had  gone  from  her  voice 
as  she  replied:  "It  is  not  the  prophecy, 
Herbert;  you  are  sure  of  that.  It  is  not 
that  I  care  less  for  you  than  I  have  cared 
in  the  years  we  have  grown  up  together. 
It  is  not  that  under  ordinary  conditions  I 
would  not  follow  you  gladly  to  the  city  or 
anywhere  in  the  world.  But  what  are  we 
to  gain?  Can  we  be  happier  there  than 
here?  Is  there  so  lovely  a  spot  as  this, 
and,"  she  added,  softly,  "who  is  it  that 
says  that  love  grows  on  loveliness?" 

It  seemed  to  Agatha  as  she  spoke  that 
nature  conspired  with  her  to  make  him  for 
get  his  resolution  and  bring  him  back  to 
the  old,  glad  life.  The  moonlight  filtered 
through  the  thick  branches  of  the  great 
4' 


Little  Miss  Dee 


trees  and  shimmered  on^the  waters  of  the 
river  down  below.  The  scent  of  the  blos 
soms  came  from  the  garden,  and  the  soft 
breath  of  the  prairie  blew  from  the  distant 
country.  How  often  they  had  sat  together 
in  the  intoxication  of  such  a  spell.  But  his 
thoughts  were  still  on  the  restless  life  in  a 
larger  world,  and  his  eyes  were  shut  to  the 
beauties  he  had  loved.  He  did  not  reply, 
so  full  he  was  of  the  dreams  of  ambition, 
and  she  said: 

"You  know  how  I  am  placed,  and  where 
my  present  duty  lies.  You  have  seen  my 
father,  old  and  childish,  and  dependent  on 
me  alone.  I  cannot  leave  him,  and  I  do 
not  dare  look  beyond  the  limit  of  his  life. 
You  have  come  to  me  when  I  am  helpless 
and  I  can  do  nothing. ' ' 

Then  Herbert,  who  saw  that  the  girl 
was  weeping,  came  to  himself,  repented 
again,  and  consoled  her  in  that  wonderful 
way  known  only  to  true  lovers.  And  he 
told  her  of  his  plans,  for  her  and  himself, 
and  "spoke  eagerly  of  the  time  when  she 
should  join  him  and  they  should  live  again 
4* 


Little  Miss  Dee 


the  old  day-dreaming.  And  her  foolish 
heart  fluttered  when  he  showed  her  the 
miniature  she  had  given  him,  and  she 
blushed  with  joy  when  he  replaced  it  over 
his  heart  and  vowed  it  should  stay  there 
until  she  came  to  him. 

So  he  comforted  her,  and  they  sat  and 
talked  in  the  moonlight  of  some  far-off  day 
which  meant  emancipation  and  happiness 
for  both,  and  they  discoursed  much  fool 
ishness  which  is  the  joy  and  romance  of 
youth,  and  made  wonderful  plans  and  built 
impossible  castles  and  banished  all  thought 
of  trouble  and  pain  in  the  intoxication  of 
the  springtime  of  love.  And  what  they 
dreamed  that  night  millions  of  lovers  have 
dreamed  before  them,  and  millions  will 
continue  to  dream  in  the  ecstasy  of  young 
passion.  But  the  following  day  Herbert 
went  off  to  the  distant  city  to  begin  the 
new  life,  and  the  girl,  with  a  singing  heart, 
went  back  to  her  father  and  her  duty. 
And  neither  knew  that  written  plainly  in 
the  book  of  fate  Little  Miss  Dee's  first 
romance  was  dead. 

43 


YOU  followers  of  romance  and  implac 
able  avengers  of  feminine  wrongs, 
who  are  earnest  and  outspoken  in  condem 
nation  of  Herbert  Ainslie,  remember  that 
at  this  time  he  stood  for  nothing  notable  in 
human  experience  or  developed  character. 
And  you  wise  philosophers  and  cynics,  do 
not  laugh  at  Agatha  because  she  dreamed 
foolishly  in  her  little  domain  of  girlish 
ignorance  and  innocently  believed  all  the 
nonsense  that  makes  the  world  go  round. 
Happily  there  are  not  a  few  who,  having 
trodden  the  same  path,  recognize  the  power 
of  environment,  the  disenchantment  of 
absence,  and  justly  believe  that  what  is 
might  not  have  been  with  unchanged  con 
ditions.  Love  is  not  utterly  repulsed  and 
hearts  are  not  easily  broken  at  one  and 
twenty. 

Agatha  accepted  the  situation  with  all 
the  equanimity  of   a  young  woman  with 
responsibilities  and   a  mission,    and  went 
44 


Little  Miss  Dee 


about  her  daily  tasks  with  a  calmness  that 
spoke  volumes  for  her  strength  of  resolu 
tion.  Herbert  did  not  immediately  prove 
recreant,  but  the  letters  which  came, 
grudgingly  at  first,  at  last  ceased  alto 
gether,  so  pressing  are  the  cares  and  obli 
gations  of  a  young  man  carving  his  fortune 
in  a  strange  city.  Thus  the  days  length 
ened  into  weeks,  and  the  weeks  into  months, 
and  the  inhabitants  of  the  future  capital  of 
the  nation  lived  their  peaceful  lives,  while 
the  grass  grew  bountifully  along  and  in  the 
streets,  and  the  rush  of  trade  forbore  to 
disturb  their  serenity  or  molest  their  indo 
lence. 

One  day  Agatha  came  to  her  father,  her 
face  glowing  with  the  joy  of  a  wonderful 
inspiration.  The  old  man  had  already 
passed  the  stage  of  active  interference  with 
the  affairs  of  the  household,  but  his  dutiful 
daughter  lovingly  humored  him  by  pretend 
ing  to  consult  him  before  taking  any  impor 
tant  step,  and  the  victim  of  filial  feminine 
guile  gloried  in  the  unsuspected  humbug. 
She  sat  on  the  edge  of  his  chair,  affection- 

45 


Little  Miss  Dee 


ately  winding   a  curl   of    his  white   hair 
around  her  finger,  and  began: 

"Father,  I  am  beginning  to  think  that  I 
do  not  have  enough  to  occupy  my  mind. 
You  see  there  are  only  two  of  us  in  the 
family,  and  you  are  so  independent  and 
strong  in  yourself" — arch  hypocrite! — 
"that  Jialf  the  time  I  find  myself  twirling 
my  thumbs  in  despair  of  my  own  indo 
lence.  " 

The  old  pensioner  looked  pleased  at  this 
tribute,  and  replied  with  a  gratified  air, 
"Yes,  dear,  I  have  always  made  it  a  habit 
of  life  to  depend  on  my  own  resources, 
though,"  he  added,  magnanimously,  as  if 
not  wishing  to  give  pain,  "you  have  been 
a  good  child,  a  good  child." 

"And  you  know,  father,  that  my  old 
school-friend,  Mrs.  Judson,  whose  husband 
was  killed  three  months  after  their  mar 
riage,  died  two  weeks  ago." 

"Dear  me;  yes,  dear,  of  course,"  nodded 
the  old  man,  whose  memory  could  go  back 
thirty  years,  but  not  thirty  days. 

"And  left  a  little  boy,  Archibald." 
46 


Little  Miss  Dee 


Did  she,  indeed?  Dear  me!  yes,  of 
rse." 

"All  of  which,"  went  on  Agatha,  very 
rapidly,  "brings  me  to  the  point.  I  think 
I  shall  adopt  that  little  boy." 

"Dear  me!  why  yes,  of  course,  why 
not?"  asked  her  father,  with  a  feeble  con 
viction  that  he  was  expected  to  say  some 
thing. 

"Only,  however,  with  your  consent. 
You  are  so  much  more  experienced  and 
sagacious  and  prudent  than  I  that  I  should 
not  think  of  taking  so  important  a  step 
without  consulting  you,  father  dear. ' ' 

"Certainly  not;  dear  me!  I  should  say 
not;  of  course  you  wouldn't, "  replied  the 
old  man,  and  he  looked  astonished  and  in 
dignant  at  the  bare  suggestion  that  anybody 
could  even  think  of  taking  any  sort  of  step 
without  his  opinion  and  sanction.  And 
seeing  that  this  well-directed  shot  was 
taking  up  his  entire  attention,  she  went  on: 

"I  have  been  so  troubled  ever  since  you 
told  me  that  you  have  abandoned  all  hope  of 
fulfilling  our  family  prophecy,  and  have 
47 


Little  Miss  Dee 


put  the  burden  and  obligation  on  me.  I 
know  that  I  am  not  equal  to  it,  and  that  no 
woman  could  possibly  succeed  where  such 
strong  and  able  men  as  we  have  had  in  our 
family  have  failed.  And  this  is  one  of  the 
overpowering  reasons  that  have  influenced 
me  in  my  desire  to  adopt  little  Archibald. 
Suppose  he  comes  to  us  and  takes  our 
name,  as  I  shall  certainly  insist.  He  will 
grow  up  with  a  full  knowledge  of  the  proph 
ecy,  of  the  significance  it  carries  to  us,  and 
with  the  understanding  that  he  is  the  last 
of  our  race,  and  therefore  the  one  upon 
whom  everything  depends.  Perhaps  we 
are  taking  an  unfair  advantage  of  the  gypsy, 
but  we  have  at  least  the  consoling  assur 
ance  that  she  will  never  know  it. " 

tfl  don't  know/'  said  the  old  man, 
anxiously.  "Dear  me,  Pm  not  so  sure 
that  it  will  work.  For  don't  you  see,  he 
really  doesn't  belong  to  our  family,  and 
while  we  may  resort  to  the  stratagem,  it 
cannot  possibly  fool  the  fates. ' ' 

"We  are  not  trying  to  fool  anybody, 
father,"  said  Agatha.  "My  point  is  that 
48 


Little  Miss  Dee 


the  language  of  the  prophecy  is  so  obscure 
that  nobody  can  tell  exactly  what  is  meant. 
You  yourself  have  believed  that  it  is  pos 
sible  for  me  to  be  the  'hero'  in  spite  of  the 
masculine  specification,  and  I  cannot  see 
why  little  Archibald  will  not  be  as  much  in 
line  as  a  woman,  even  if  he  is  our  hero  and 
savior  by  adoption. ' ' 

The  old  man  beamed.  "It  is  an  inspir 
ation,"  he  cried,  "and  we'll  beat  the  gypsy 
yet,  though  I  must  confess  the  scheme 
looks  a  little  underhanded  and  unworthy  of 
the  family  of  Dee.  I  don't  believe  our 
great  ancestor  Richard  would  have  stood 
for  it,  and  I  am  sure  my  cousin  Calverley 
would  have  disapproved  of  it. ' ' 

"Very  likely,  but  you  must  understand, 
father,  that  times  have  changed  and  we 
cannot  entirely  shape  our  actions  to  suit  the 
ethics  of  former  generations.  Moreover, ' ' 
she  projected,  shrewdly,  "if  our  great  an 
cestor  and  your  cousin  Calverley  had  shown 
themselves  capable  there  would  be  no 
necessity  of  resorting  to  any  unusual 
ways  of  saving  the  family  reputation 
49 


Little  Miss  Dee 


and  getting  rid  of  the  gypsy  for  good  and 
all." 

"That's  well  put,"  said  her  father,  "so 
you  bring  the  boy  over  at  once,  and  we'll 
lay  the  matter  before  him,  and  hear  what  he 
has  to  say." 

"There's  no  great  hurry  about  that," 
replied  Agatha,  with  a  laugh,  "for  as  the 
boy  is  only  eighteen  months  old,  and  as 
there  are  certain  preliminaries  of  adoption, 
I  am  afraid  we  shall  be  obliged  to  give  the 
law  and  nature  a  little  leeway.  But  I  am 
glad  to  see  that  your  judgment  favors  my 
wish,  for  now  I  am  sure  I  am  making  no 
mistake." 

In  this  artful  manner  the  young  mistress 
of  diplomacy  carried  the  day,  and  in  a  short 
time  Master  Archibald  Dee,  born  Judson, 
was  duly  installed  in  his  new  home  and 
among  his  new  responsibilities  with  due 
process  of  law  and  with  the  cordial  assent 
of  the  interested  community.  He  arrived, 
it  happened,  not  any  too  soon,  for  the  old 
pensioner,  growing  feebler  every  day,  worn 
out  by  his  wounds  and  his  restless  spirit, 
50 


Little  Miss  Dee 


saw  death,  who  could  not  conquer  him  at 
Palo  Alto,  approaching  surely  and  irresist 
ibly.  And  one  night,  when  a  violent  storm 
was  raging,  he  knew  that  the  end  was  near, 
and  he  called  to  Agatha,  and  went  over 
again  the  old  story  of  the  prophecy,  "as  if 
its  ringing  had  not  been  in  her  ears  since 
childhood,  and  the  hope  that  was  in  his 
heart  showed  itself  in  his  shining  face  and 
his  triumphant  tone. 

"It  has  come  down  to  you  and  the  boy, 
Agatha,'*  he  said,  "and  something  tells 
me  that  you  will  prove  stronger  than  we 
have  been.  My  life  has  been  a  rather 
sorry  one,  my  dear,  but  when  I  am  gone 
perhaps  you  will  think  that  after  all  I  did 
not  have  a  fair  chance.  The  same  fate 
that  decreed  that  I  should  be  a  soldier  also 
willed  that  I  should  not  reach  the  soldier's 
ambition.  And  since  all  our  fighting  an 
cestors  have  failed  as  I  have  failed,  why 
may  we  not  believe  that  the  battle-field  is 
not  to  be  the  scene  of  the  triumph  of  our 
family?' ' 

Agatha's   arms  were  round   the  dying 
5' 


Little  Miss  Dee 


man,  and  his  head  was  resting  on  her 
shoulder.  When  she  tried  to  speak  and 
her  voice  choked,  he  said:  "Sometimes  I 
have  feared,  Agatha,  that  you  have  not 
fully  believed  in  the  prophetic  words  of  the 
gypsy,  but  you  will  believe,  for  it  comes  to 
us  all  in  time.  It  may  seem  far  off  and 
weak  and  foolish  now,  but  you  will  learn  to 
know  its  truth  as  I  know  it.  Fifteen 
generations  are  not  easily  deceived,  my 
dear." 

He  asked  her  to  bend  a  little  lower,  and 
he  whispered:  "Perhaps  I  have  not  been 
altogether  just  to  you,  Agatha.  Perhaps  I 
was  wrong  in  permitting  Herbert  to  go 
away  and  in  rejoicing  in  his  departure  when 
I  knew  that  you  loved  him.  Don't  judge 
me  too  harshly  for  that  when  I  am  gone, 
and  when  he  comes  back  to  you,  tell  him 
that  at  the  last  I  was  his  friend  and  re 
pented  that  I  had  not  made  you  both  as 
happy  as  you  deserve.  It  was  another  of 
my  mistakes,  Agatha.  Try  to  think  of  it 
only  as  a  mistake. ' ' 

That  last  night  and  the  long  months  that 
52 


Little  Miss  Dee 


had  elapsed  passed  swiftly  before  Agatha 
as  the  old  man  spoke.  She  held  him  the 
more  tenderly  in  her  arms,  and  there  were 
no  tears  in  her  eyes  or  in  her  voice  as  she 
answered:  "It  was  right  that  it  should  be 
so,  father.  The  mistake  was  ours,  not 
yours.  It  is  all  over  now,  dear,  and  I  am 
walking  in  a  better  light.  When  Herbert 
comes  all  will  be  as  well  as  you  could 
wish." 

He  was  silent  a  moment  and  the  storm 
rocked  the  house.  He  smiled,  and  said: 
"It  was  on  a  night  like  this  that  the  great 
est  soldier  of  the  world  passed  away  at  St. 
Helena.  And  what  was  my  failure  as 
compared  with  his?  What  was  my  Palo 
Alto  to  his  Waterloo?  I  am  dying,  as 
Napoleon  died,  in  a  storm,  and  as  a  true 
soldier  should  wish  to  die,  but  he  left  every 
thing  behind  him,  while  for  me  there  is  the 
joy  of  the  triumph  I  feel  is  to  come.  His 
cause  was  hopelessly  lost,  and  mine  after 
all  these  centuries  seems  just  beginning. ' ' 

A  little  later  he  whispered:  "Good  by, 
dear.  You  are  so  strong  and  brave,  and 
53 


Little  Miss  Dee 


you  have  always  been  so  good,  so  good. 
Don't  forget." 

The  storm  had  passed,  the  old  pensioner's 
last  battle  had  been  fought,  and  Little  Miss 
Dee  was  alone  in  the  world  with  her  burden 
and  her  mission. 


54 


IN  the  serene  consciousness  of  a  duty  to 
be  performed  Agatha  Dee  had  accepted 
whatever  adversity  had  come  to  her.  Those 
of  her  neighbors  who  were  chary  of  praise 
declared  that  it  was  her  temperament  which 
enabled  her  to  bear  with  equanimity  such 
sorrows  as  come  to  every  life;  others,  a 
little  more  charitable,  attributed  her  com 
posure  to  a  cheerful  disposition,  for  the 
possession  of  which  she  deserved  no  special 
credit,  for  it  is  one  of  the  small  ironies 
of  life  that  however  much  we  may  dis 
pense  happiness  or  gain  friends,  the  guid 
ing  cause  is  promptly  found  in  a  dispensa 
tion  of  Providence  for  which  we  are 
personally  entitled  to  no  thanks  whatever. 
It  may  be  our  good  fortune  to  be  tempera 
mentally  equable  or  by  disposition  cheerful, 
but  it  is  through  no  exertion  of  ours,  and  as 
such  demands  no  recognition.  If  Agatha 
Dee  was  a  marvel  of  sweetness  and  duty, 
it  was  because  she  was  born  so.  That 
55 


Little  Miss  Dee 


point  is  invariably  established  by  those  who 
must  have  been  born  the  other  way. 

Whatever  the  extent  to  which  this  ques 
tion  may  have  disturbed  psychologists,  it 
entered  at  no  time  into  the  calculations  of 
Agatha,  who  went  demurely  about  her 
e very-day  occupation,  satisfied  with  the 
world  as  she  found  it,  believing,  as  was 
the  fact,  that  everybody  was  her  friend, 
and  that  life  at  the  longest  could  not  be  of 
sufficient  length  to  repay  the  obligations  of 
gratitude  for  the  favors  she  received. 
That  she  was  already  passing  from  the 
bloom  of  early  youth  was  to  her  a  matter 
of  trivial  importance,  and  she  concerned 
herself  not  at  all  as  to  the  opinion  the 
world  might  entertain  of  her  relative  posi 
tion  in  spinsterhood.  At  an  age  when  the 
conventional  and  commonplace  maiden  is 
hardly  willing  to  confess  that  she  is  out  of 
her  'teens,  Agatha  laughingly  proclaimed 
that  she  was  an  old  maid,  and  gloried  in  it. 
She  gave  many  profound  and  convincing 
reasons  why  a  state  of  singleness  is  much 
to  be  desired,  and  she  had  so  fortified  her- 
56 


Little  Miss  Dee 


self  with  the  names  and  deeds  of  illustrious 
women  who  spurned  matrimony  that  had 
she  chosen  to  take  the  rostrum  as  the 
champion  of  celibacy,  he  would  have  been 
skilled  in  debate,  indeed,  who  could  with 
stand  her  arguments. 

That  Agatha  had  very  decided  and  pro 
nounced  principles  in  the  matter  of  the 
scientific  bringing  up  of  children  is  not  at 
all  remarkable.  In  this  respect  she  did 
not  differ  materially  from  other  spinsters  in 
general  theory,  however  removed  she  may 
have  been  from  them  in  the  matter  of  prac 
tice.  Agatha,  if  only  to  show  her  respect 
for  her  sex,  permitted  herself  to  be  guided 
very  indulgently  by  her  emotions,  but  per 
haps  not  so  much  as  a  vindication  of  the 
principle  of  woman's  safe  and  superior  intui 
tions  as  because  it  was  the  most  natural, 
and  therefore  the  most  correct,  thing. 
From  her  father  she  had  inherited  a  martial 
spirit  and  a  poetic  and  quixotic  disposition, 
and  from  her  mother  a  combination  of 
those  feminine  inconsistencies  and  charms 
which  softened  and  feminized  the  lion. 
57 


Little  Miss  Dee 


The  first  dominant  determination  of  this 
small  woman  was,  that  whatever  else 
Archibald  Dee  might  be,  he  should  not  be 
a  milksop,  and  with  this  end  in  view  she 
went  fixedly  to  work  to  excite  in  the  boy 
an  appreciation  of  all  that  is  heroic  and 
virile.  It  was  in  the  very  nature  of  things 
that  young  Archibald,  religiously  and 
piously  reared,  knew  his  David  and  his 
Joshua  and  his  Samson  long  before  he 
mastered  the  biblical  principles  of  the  cre 
ation,  and  could  swing  a  bat  and  master  a 
horse  with  much  more  confidence  than  he 
could  conjugate  his  verbs.  It  was  Little 
Miss  Dee's  delight  to  induct  him  into  the 
martial  scenes  of  poetry,  and  it  was  a  spec 
tacle  worth  seeing  when  she  stretched  her 
self  to  the  full  limit  of  her  five  feet  and 
four  inches  and  thundered  the  valorous 
measures  of  the  hero  singers  until  he 
caught  her  spirit  and  the  infection  of  her 
enthusiasm.  Yet  such  is  the  delightful 
inconsistency  of  woman  that  she  would  go 
joyfully  from  the  tented  field  and  the  war 
rior's  camp  to  her  flower  garden  and  mourn 
58 


Little  Miss  Dee 


over  a  withered  rose  or  a  broken  tulip,  and 
every  maimed  dog  in  the  town  came  in 
stinctively  to  her  for  kindness  and  sym 
pathy  when  life  had  been  a  little  too 
strenuous. 

Public  opinion  differed  as  to  the  prob- 
able'result  of  Little  Miss  Dee's  experiment 
in  adoptive  maternity.  The  older  genera 
tion  of  experienced  mothers  smiled  toler 
antly  and  agreed  that  it  was  interesting 
but  dangerous,  and  that  no  woman  could 
be  reasonably  expected  to  bring  up  a  child 
that  had  not  accrued  to  her  by  natural 
laws;  the  careful  and  conservative  rector 
of  the  Episcopal  Church,  to  which  Agatha 
had  given  an  early  and  loyal  allegiance, 
hoped  for  the  best  in  a  properly  conven 
tional  and  non-committal  way;  the  prin 
cipal  of  the  high  school  expressed  the 
opinion  that  time  would  justify  or  disprove 
the  value  of  the  attempt,  a  brilliant  argu 
ment  which  nobody  made  the  slightest 
attempt  to  contradict;  and  the  young 
women  who  constituted  her  school  con 
temporaries  declared  that  "Agatha  always 
59 


Little  Miss  Dee 


was  queer.'*  But  the  men  in  general 
stood  up  for  her  valiantly  and  asserted 
that  the  world  would  be  a  great  deal  better 
and  happier  world  if  every  woman  saw  her 
duty  so  clearly  and  attended  to  it  so  closely. 
In  this  pleasant  and  indulgent  atmos 
phere  of  the  old  regime,  tempered  by  such 
occasional  whimsicalities  as  would  naturally 
characterize  feminine  rule,  Archibald  Dee 
grew  into  young  manhood.  It  was  not  her 
fault  that  his  little  mother  and  instructor 
did  not  fully  understand  a  temperament 
differing  distinctly  from  her  own,  and  it 
was  no  fault  of  his  that  the  whims  and 
vagaries  of  the  Dees  sometimes  bewildered 
and  disconcerted  him.  From  time  to  time 
the  rector,  the  high  school  principal,  the 
advanced  mothers,  and  the  seminary  con 
temporaries  would  wait  upon  Agatha  and 
assure  her  that  the  time  had  now  arrived 
when  the  young  fellow  should  be  turned 
over  to  the  care  and  guidance  of  a  man; 
but  Little  Miss  Dee  merely  replied  that 
under  the  laws  of  the  commonwealth,  and 
according  to  the  dictates  of  her  conscience, 
60 


Little  Miss  Dee 


she  felt  responsible  for  the  well-being  of 
the  lad  and  would  act  accordingly.  Where 
upon  the  delegation  or  the  individual  would 
retire,  astonished  or  in  confusion,  as  the 
nature  of  the  reproof  demanded. 

In  addition  to  her  father's  transmission 
of  valor  and  spirit,  Agatha  had  inherited 
the  paternal  inability  to  manage  finances, 
and  by  the  time  the  young  man  had  ac 
quired  a  fair  education  at  the  schools  of  the 
town  and  was  ready  for  college,  alarming 
inroads  had  been  made  on  the  family  purse. 
This  condition  did  not  in  the  least  oppress 
our  heroine,  whose  optimistic  nature  re 
fused  to  be  cast  down  by  the  ordinary 
trifles  of  finance,  and  whose  cheerful  con 
viction  that  the  Lord  would  provide,  if 
people  only  did  their  duty  according  to 
their  lights,  disarmed  all  criticism  and 
silenced  the  tongues  of  warning.  Agatha 
decreed  that  the  boy  should  receive  an  edu 
cation,  whatever  the  cost,  and  having  care 
fully  and  judiciously  selected^the  institution 
of  learning,  she  descended  on  the  college 
town  with  her  charge  and  exchanged  opin- 
61 


Little  Miss  Dee 


ions  with  the  registrar  concerning  the  cor 
rect  trend  of  educational  matters,  making  a 
few  suggestions  as  to  the  best  method  of 
laying  out  the  paths  of  knowledge.  She 
saw  her  protege"  safely  established  as  a 
member  of  the  freshman  class,  and  during 
the  year,  and  in  fact  all  through  the  college 
course,  she  appeared  frequently  on  the 
scene  of  action  in  order  to  provide  against 
emergencies  which  she  feared  might  arise 
through  reason  of  her  absence. 

It  never  occurred  to  Archibald  that  this 
solicitude  on  the  part  of  the  little  mother 
was  in  any  way  a  reflection  on  his  manli 
ness  or  ability  to  take  care  of  himself.  A 
strapping  young  fellow,  six  feet  in  his 
stockings,  is  more  likely  to  be  amused  than 
disconcerted  by  the  spectacle  of  a  rather 
small  woman  exercising  herself  in  his 
behalf.  Moreover,  Archibald  had  been  so 
accustomed  since  infancy  to  these  feminine 
ministrations  that  he  accepted  them  as  a 
necessary  detail  of  his  existence,  which 
would  be  quite  another  thing  if  attempted 
by  any  other  woman  not  clothed  with  the 
62 


Little  Miss  Dee 


proper  authority.  And,  to  do  her  justice, 
Agatha  herself  would  have^been  the  first  to 
resent  any  imputation  as  to  Archibald's 
self-reliance.  She  gloried  rather  more  in 
his  athletic  prowess  than  in  the  satisfactory 
advance  he  made  in  his  studies,  and  his 
elevation  to  his  class,  and  subsequently  to 
the  university,  boat  was  a  memorable 
achievement  to  the  daughter  of  the  old 
soldier. 

Meanwhile  the  financial  agent  who  was 
intrusted  with  the  disagreeable  responsi 
bility  of  looking  after  the  vanishing  estate, 
felt  the  necessity  of  informing  Agatha  that 
the  expense  of  luxuriating  in  the  possession 
of  an  adopted  son,  whose  tastes  were  not 
remarkable  for  simplicity,  was  gradually 
undermining  the  financial  fabric  of  the 
family.  To  this  she  replied  that,  while  she 
recognized  the  danger  incurred,  she  had 
undertaken  a  solemn  mission,  and  it  was 
too  late  to  be  deterred  by  trifles.  Just 
before  his  graduation  day  she  had  conferred 
with  Archibald  concerning  his  choice  of  a 
sphere  of  usefulness,  and  had  learned  from 
63 


Little  Miss  Dee 


him  that,  while  in  common  with  most  of 
the  young  men  of  his  set,  he  had  no  special 
leanings  toward  labor,  the  law  afforded  a 
sort  of  gentlemanly  recreation  and  dignified 
employment  of  such  hours  as  must  be 
necessarily  devoted,  for  form's  sake,  to 
the  appearance  of  business.  This  inclina 
tion  necessitated  a  course  in  the  law  school, 
and  two  more  years  of  college  life,  and 
when  at  last  Archibald  passed  his  exami 
nations  very  creditably,  and  said  farewell 
temporarily  to  his  classmates,  he  quite 
agreed  with  Agatha  that  there  was  no 
longer  any  excuse  for  putting  off  the  evil 
hour  of  going  to  work.  Then  Agatha, 
who  had  mapped  out  a  programme,  with 
no  intention  of  deviating  from  it,  announced 
her  decision. 

"My  dear  Archibald,'*  she  said,  "we 
are  both  fully  aware  that  it  is  quite  impos 
sible  that  a  man  of  your  education  and 
talents  should  bury  himself  in  this  little 
town.  I  have  heard  my  father  say  a  hun 
dred  times  that  if  he  had  not  made  the 
mistake  of  settling  down  in  a  village,  in- 
64 


Little  Miss  Dee 


stead  of  going  at  once  to  the  city,  he  would 
have  accomplished  much  more  in  life.  You 
have  heard  the  story  of  our  family  proph 
ecy,  and  you  know  how  little  importance  I 
attach  to  it;  still  it  is  true  that  there  is  no 
wisdom  in  shutting  one's  eyes  to  all  the 
possibilities,  and  if  it  is  decreed  that  you 
are  to  be  famous,  it  is  our  duty  to  help 
along  fate  to  the  best  of  our  ability.  I 
have  made  arrangements  which  provide 
that  you  shall  enter  a  law  office,  and  I  have 
also  arranged  to  accompany  you — not  be 
cause  you  really  need  me  in  the  promotion 
of  your  fortune,  my  dear  boy,  but  because 
I  fear  you  will  be  lonely  in  that  great 
wilderness  of  souls. ' ' 

Whereupon  Little  Miss  Dee  stood  up  on 
tip-toe  and  kissed  him,  and  Archibald,  who 
was  at  heart  not  an  unappreciative  fellow, 
and  who  had  a  genuine  affection  for  his 
little  mother,  returned  the  salutation  with 
warmth.  He  might  have  explained  that 
so  far  as  loneliness  goes,  he  felt  capable  of 
passing  the  dreary  hours  in  the  city  without 
an  excess  of  sadness,  but  he  was  truly 
65 


Little  Miss  Dee 


devoted  to  his  protector,  though  naturally 
in  a  somewhat  selfish  way,  and  he  was 
touched  by  her  unremitting  love.  So 
Agatha  interviewed  her  man  of  business, 
arranged  the  details  of  her  now  meager  in 
come,  put  a  placard  in  the  front  parlor 
window  announcing  a  house  for  rent,  and 
departed  for  the  city,  carrying  Archibald 
with  her,  meek  and  unresisting. 


IT  was  quite  in  line  with  the  rules  of  pro 
cedure  that,  once  in  the  city,  Little 
Miss  Dee  should  busy  herself  with  the 
arrangements  for  living,  first  having  intro 
duced  Archibald  to  the  gentlemen  whose 
office  he  was  to  adorn,  and  whose  clients 
he  was  to  favor  with  his  knowledge.  Very 
felicitously  it  had  happened  that  Mr. 
Faxon,  of  the  well-known  firm  of  Claxton, 
Faxon  &  Brent,  had  remembered  Agatha 
as  the  distant  connection  of  his  mother, 
who  was  a  Calverley,  and  had  gladly  ac 
ceded  to  her  request  that  Archibald  should 
be  associated  with  him  and  his  partners. 
Then  Agatha  proceeded  to  hunt  up  a  board 
ing-house  with  comforts  agreeable  to  her 
income.  Such  an  abode  she  found  without 
great  difficulty,  and  when  she  had  installed 
Archibald  on  the  second  floor,  she  took  to 
herself  a  little  room  at  the  top  of  the 
house,  where,  as  she  craftily  explained,  she 
could  look  out  on  the  lake,  get  plenty  of 
67 


Little  Miss  Dee 


light  and  air,  and  be  perfectly  secure  against 
intrusion  when  she  desired  to  be  alone.  In 
these  arrangements  Archibald  acquiesced 
with  his  customary  good  nature,  and  doubt 
less  it  never  occurred  to  him  that  the  old 
maid's  action  was  a  mere  subterfuge,  and 
that  in  her  unselfishness  she  thought  only 
of  his  comfort.  "We  shall  be  so  happy 
here,  my  dear  boy, ' '  she  cried,  with  well- 
simulated  enthusiasm.  "I  have  always 
been  fond  of  water  views,  and  it  will  be  a 
real  luxury  to  have  a  room  where  I  can 
feast  my  eyes  perpetually  on  this  beautiful 
lake. ' '  And  then  she  would  crawl  up  four 
flights  of  stairs  to  her  cramped  room,  and 
if  an  occasional  sigh  came  from  that  gener 
ous  heart  as  she  thought  of  her  comfortable 
home  in  the  little  distant  town,  she  bravely 
checked  it  and  reproached  herself  for  such 
wicked  thoughts. 

"Don't  you  tell  me,  Sarah  Parsons,'* 
she  said  one  day,  "there  is  no  use  in  deny 
ing  that  the  longer  we  live  the  more  and 
more  selfish  we  get.  It  is  astonishing 
how  such  things  grow  on  us.  I  can  re- 
68 


Little  Miss  Dee 


member  how,  when  I  was  young,  it  was  no 
trouble  at^all  to  give  up  the  trifles  that  now 
seem  indispensable.  It  really  worries  me 
to  think  what  an  intolerable  creature  I  shall 
be  when  I  am  old."  And  she  sighed  at 
the  prospect. 

"Humph!"  said  Miss  Parsons. 

Sarah  Parsons  was  an  interesting  study 
in  human  phenomena.  She  had  come  from 
New  England  many  years  before  to  teach 
school,  and  possessing  a  melancholy  dis 
position,  which  led  her  to  shun  the  haunts 
of  convivial  people,  with  a  frugal  nature, 
which  enabled  her  to  accumulate  a  little 
sum  of  money  against  the  coming  of  a  rainy 
day,  she  had  measurably  retired  from  the 
world  to  the  sanctity  of  Mrs.  Braidwood's 
refined  boarding-house.  Miss  Parsons's 
melancholia  seemed  to  expand  with  years, 
and  it  was  currently  reported  among  the 
boarders  that  she  absolutely  reveled  in 
grief.  In  her  room  on  the  third  floor, 
which  was  most  austerely  furnished,  she 
kept  a  small  and  lugubrious  library  of 
works  pertaining  to  the  advanced  stage  of 
69 


Little  Miss  Dee 


human  misery;  she  rarely  smiled,  and 
when  at  times  her  features  did  relax,  the 
contortions  of  her  features  from  long  dis 
use  seemed  to  express  something  between 
a  grimace  and  a  frown,  and  greatly  terri 
fied  those  unacquainted  with  this  exhibition 
of  emotion. 

Miss  Parsons  and  Little  Miss  Dee  had 
met  early  in  the  schoolmistress's  profes 
sional  career,  when  she  had  taught  two 
terms  in  the  district  school  of  the  country 
town,  and  the  profound  solemnity  of  the 
one  had  excited  the  sympathetic  consider 
ation  of  the  other,  with  the  result  that  while 
intimacy  was  barred  by  Puritan  hauteur  a 
certain  amicable  understanding  existed 
which  passed  for  friendship.  Agatha  was 
therefore  both  surprised  and  pleased  when 
she  found  her  old  acquaintance  at  the  abid 
ing  place  she  had  selected,  and  greeted  her 
with  affectionate  protestations,  assurances 
which  Miss  Parsons  received  with  sadness, 
but  with  the  correct  deportment  she  had 
always  impressed  on  the  young  ladies  under 
her  charge. 

70 


Little  Miss  Dee 


From  all  this  it  may  be  gathered  that 
when  Sarah  Parsons  said  "  Humph, "  it 
was  more  with  an  inflection  of  dejection 
than  of  scorn,  and  that  there  was  no  sinis 
ter  intimation  of  doubt  on  her  part  as  to 
Miss  Dee's  deductions  so  unflattering  to 
herself.  "We  naturally  become  infirm  as 
we  grow  older,"  she  replied,  mournfully. 

"Still,"  said  Agatha,  "we  are  not  so 
old  after  all;  there  is  some  consoling 
thought  in  that.  And  perhaps  by  watch 
ing  ourselves  and  trying  to  curb  unreason 
able  desires  it  may  not  be  so  bad  as  we 
think." 

"Whatever  is  to  be  will  be,"  interposed 
Miss  Parsons,  sepulchrally,  "but  we  need 
not  try  to  make  ourselves  any  more  miser 
able  than  we  are,  for  things  are  sure  to  be 
bad  enough  at  the  best.  Mrs.  Braidwood 
was  foolish  enough  to  tell  me  yesterday 
that  I  should  look  on  the  bright  side  of  life, 
just  as  if  it  would  do  any  good  to  look  on 
any  side  of  life.  We  can't  help  matters 
by  looking,  can  we?" 

"Sometimes  we  can  help  them  by  look- 
7' 


Little  Miss  Dee 


ing  pleasant, "  suggested  the  optimistic 
Agatha. 

"I  am  not  at  all  sure  of  that/'  replied 
Miss  Parsons,  "but  suppose  you  do  look 
pleasant  when  you  are  not  feeling  pleas 
ant;  isn't  that  an  intentional  deceit?  How 
can  you  reconcile  it  to  your  conscience? " 

"Perhaps/*  said  Agatha,  laughingly, 
"because  I  have  just  a  plain,  ordinary  con 
science,  and  not  the  New  England  variety, 
which  seems  to  be  particularly  trouble 
some." 

Miss  Parsons  looked  grieved,  for  it 
struck  her  very  forcibly  that  there  was  a 
suggestion  of  flippancy  in  Agatha's  tone, 
inexcusable  in  a  discussion  involving  such 
a  sacred  combination  as  New  England  and 
conscience.  "I  think  we  would  better 
drop  the  subject, ' '  she  said,  sadly.  As  a 
schoolmistress  Miss  Parsons  regarded  it  a 
sacred  obligation  to  sustain  the  grammati 
cal  tone  of  the  Braidwood  house  by  saying 
"would  better"  to  the  indignation  of  the 
assembled  company. 

However  solicitous  Little  Miss  Dee  may 
73 


Little  Miss  Dee 


have  been  concerning  Archibald's  business 
and  social  prospects,  they  gave  the  young 
gentleman  himself  the  least  possible  annoy 
ance.  His  natural  brightness  and  a  fair 
degree  of  diligence  combined  to  make  him 
useful  to  his  employers,  and  they  hinted 
that  a  partnership  was  not  one  of  the  im 
probabilities  of  the  future.  His  prominence 
in  the  athletic  department  of  university  life, 
his  wide  acquaintance  with  college  men, 
and  an  unmistakable  charm  of  manner 
quickly  brought  him  the  necessary  social 
introduction,  and  altogether  the  little 
mother  had  every  apparent  reason  to  be 
proud  of  her  training  and  of  the  growing 
importance  of  her  charge. 

"What  do  you  think?"  she  asked,  tri 
umphantly  of  Miss  Parsons.  "What  do 
you  think,  Sarah?  Archie  has  been  elected 
a  member  of  the  University  Club!" 

This  thunderbolt  did  not  have  the  effect 
expected;  Miss  Parsons  appeared  on  the 
verge  of  tears.  ' '  I  hope  you  are  not  think 
ing  of  letting  him  do  it,  Agatha,"  she 
answered. 

73 


Little  Miss  Dee 


"Not  let  him  do  it?  Did  you  ever  stop 
to  reflect  what  an  honor  this  is?  Perhaps 
you  do  not  know,  but  Archie  tells  me  that 
there  are  scores  of  prominent  men  on  the 
waiting  list,  and  that  they  preferred  him  to 
some  of  the  brightest  fellows  in  town.  It's 
the  opportunity  of  a  lifetime,  and  Archie 
says  that  if  he  lets  this  chance  go  by  he 
may  never  get  another." 

"All  the  better  for  him  if  he  doesn't/' 
sighed  Miss  Parsons.  "I  knew  a  young 
man  back  East  who  was  one  of  the  nicest, 
most  orderly,  well-behaved  fellows  in  the 
village.  He  went  off  to  the  city,  joined 
one  of  these  drinking  and  carousing  clubs, 
and  I  never  did  know  what  became  of 
him." 

"Well,  if  you  never  knew  what  became 
of  him,"  interjected  Agatha,  soothingly, 
"why  spend  your  time  worrying  about  him, 
or  presuming  that  he  went  to  the  bad? 
For  all  you  know  he  may  be  doing  mis 
sionary  work  this  very  minute  in  some 
foreign  land.  Think  of  the  hundreds  of 
missionaries  we  never  hear  about. ' ' 
74 


Little  Miss  Dee 


"It's  far  more  likely  that  he's  doing 
time  at  some  penal  institution,"  retorted 
Miss  Parsons,  rather  sourly.  "Guess  you 
never  knew  Harry  Cole.  If  he's  doing 
missionary  work,  I'm  mighty  sorry  for  the 
heathen;  that's  all  I've  got  to  say  about 
him." 

"I  understood  you  to  say  that  he  was  a 
nice,  orderly  young  man,"  said  Agatha, 
innocently. 

"And  so  he  was  before  he  joined  that 
club.  I  know  just  as  well  as  I  know  my 
name,  Agatha  Dee,  that  the  club  ruined 
him.  You  mark  my  words,  you'll  be  sorry 
you  ever  let  Archibald  put  his  foot  in  that 
gilded  den  of  vice. ' ' 

"Whatever  it  may  be,  it  is  hardly  a 
gilded  den, ' '  replied  Agatha,  thoughtfully. 
"I  passed  it  to-day,  and  I  thought  it  looked 
particularly  shabby.  The  front  steps  cer 
tainly  needed  cleaning,  and  the  curtains 
were  a  sight.  After  Archie  becomes  a 
member  I  am  going  to  insist  that  the  neces 
sary  improvements  are  made;  at  least  I 
shall  see  to  it  that  the  place  is  cleaned  up. 
75 


Little  Miss  Dee 


I  should  be  mortified  to  death  if  any  of  the 
folks  at  home  saw  the  condition  of  the 
building  and  knew  that  Archie  visited 
it." 

And  so  it  came  about  that  Archibald 
Dee,  general  good  fellow  and  social  favor 
ite,  became  a  clubman  in  high  standing. 
The  problem  of  the  payment  of  the  initia 
tion  fee  was  quickly  solved,  as  the  young 
gentleman  knew  it  would  be,  by  further 
evidences  of  cheerful  willingness  on  the 
part  of  Agatha.  "For,  hang  it  all,"  he 
explained,  "I  'Lhave  had  so  many  calls  on 
me  for  obligations  which  my  prospects  de 
mand,  that  unless  I  am  helped  out  this 
time  I  shall  certainly  never  make  the  club. ' ' 
And  Agatha,  who  could  see  nothing  short 
of  a  triumphant  march  to  all  sorts  of  im 
perishable  fame,  so  far  as  Archibald  was 
concerned,  schemed  and  manceuvered  and 
gave  up  various  plans  for  the  renovation  of 
the  country  home  that  the  grander  achieve 
ment  might  be  attained.  Her  reward  was 
a  kiss  airily  planted  fairly  on  the  forehead 
and  a  little  above  the  parting  of  the  eye- 
76 


Little  Miss  Dee 


brows,  and  what  compensation  is  equal 
to  that  in  the  estimation  of  a  doting 
mother? 

The  home  life  of  the  Dees  at  this  par 
ticular  crisis  in  the  worldly  affairs  of  Archi 
bald  was  in  no  danger  of  becoming 
monotonous,  for  despite  the  allurements  of 
Mrs.  Braidwood's  hospitality,  and  the  circle 
of  agreeable  and  diversified  citizens  who 
composed  her  household,  Archibald  found 
his  pleasures  elsewhere.  The  demands  on 
his  time  and  his  presence,  as  he  fully  ex 
plained,  were  such  that  he  could  not  afford 
to  ignore  them.  "You  can  understand," 
he  said  to  Agatha,  when  in  the  gentlest 
way  she  complained  that  she  had  not  seen 
him  for  five  days,  "that  a  man  has  his  way 
to  make  in  the  world,  and  he  must  take 
advantage  of  every  opportunity.  These 
people  here  in  the  house,"  he  added,  "are 
all  well  enough,  I  dare  say,  but  it  would  be 
a  criminal  waste  of  my  time  to  hang  about 
with  them." 

"You  needn't  necessarily  be  with  them, ' ' 
suggested  Agatha;  "you  might  stay  home 
77 


Little  Miss  Dee 


occasionally  and  read,  or  hang  about,  as  you 
call  it,  with  me." 

"You  forget,  my  dear  mother,"  said 
Archibald,  with  an  injured  air,  "that  when 
a  man  has  been  shut  up  in  a  law  office  all 
day  he  has  very  little  inclination  to  put  in 
his  evenings  in  a  library.  A  fellow  must 
have  some  recreation,  and  what  is  more  to 
the  point,  I  am  building  up  a  circle  of  ac 
quaintances  that  will  be  extremely  useful 
to  me.  I  am  surprised  that  a  woman  of 
your  experience  and  far-sightedness  does 
not  see  this  at  once." 

After  this  convincing  argument  Miss 
Dee  retired  without  further  expostulation, 
while  Archibald,  having  put  on  his  evening 
clothes,  went  forth  to  that  recreation  so 
indispensable  to  a  rising  man  of  business. 
It  never  seemingly  occurred  to  either  that 
they  might  have  pleasures  abroad  in  com 
mon,  and  Agatha  looked  on  Archibald's 
acquaintances  of  both  sexes  as  necessary 
evils,  which  the  poor  boy  endured  only  for 
the  purpose  of  advancing  his  interests. 
She  piously  thanked  heaven  that  she  was 
78 


Little  Miss  Dee 


not  a  man  and  compelled  to  work  so  hard 
for  a  position  in  the  world,  and  often,  when 
the  masculine  sufferer  had  hurried  away 
after  dinner,  or  sent  word  that  he  was  din 
ing  out,  she  would  tap  on  Miss  Par 
sons  's  door  and  commune  with  that  gloomy 
lady  in  deprecation  of  the  hard  lot  of 
man. 

But  Miss  Parsons  was  not  a  human  fount 
of  consolation,  and  at  several  pliant  mo 
ments  she  did  not  fail  to  tell  her  friend  her 
unbiased  opinion  of  Archibald's  attitude,  a 
burst  of  confidence  that  would  have  been 
painful  if  the  lady's  melancholy  nature  had 
not  immediately  led  her  off  into  generali 
ties  associated  with  her  early  observation 
of  the  human  family.  "Men  are  pretty 
much  alike, ' '  she  maintained.  ' ' The  more 
you  do  for  them  the  more  you  may  do,  and 
the  quicker  it's  done  the  sooner  you  have 
the  opportunity  of  doing  something  else" 
— thereby  adding  strength  and  pith  to  an 
ancient  saying. 

"It  is  a  pleasure  to  do  for  those  we 
love, ' '  said  Agatha,  gently. 
79 


Little  Miss  Dee 


"Pish!"  retorted  Miss  Parsons. 

One  afternoon  Agatha  came  home  with 
a  guilty  look  on  her  face,  which  showed 
itself  very  plainly,  notwithstanding  the  un 
usual  brightness  of  her  eyes  and  the  excite 
ment  of  her  manner.  Miss  Parsons  may 
not  have  been  the  only  one  to  note  it,  but 
she  was  the  first  to  take  the  culprit  aside 
and  speak  of  it.  "Agatha  Dee/*  she 
said,  "you  have  been  doing  something 
uncommon.  I  hope  it  is  nothing  you  are 
ashamed  of." 

"Sarah,"  replied  the  suspected  one,  "I 
have  been  doing  something  uncommon,  and 
I  can't  quite  decide  whether  I  am  ashamed 
or  glad  of  it.  The  fact  is,  that  I  felt  sort 
of  depressed  and  out  of  sorts  this  after 
noon,  and  when  temptation  came,  the  first 
thing  I  knew  I  had  yielded  to  it.  To  make 
a  long  story  short,  and  a  bad  matter  no 
worse,  I  went  to  the  theater." 

"I  do  not  go  to  theaters,"  suggested 
Miss  Parsons,  severely. 

"You  do  not  do  a  good  many  things  that 
I  do,"  said  Agatha,  with  a  self-accusing 
80 


Little  Miss  Dee 


sigh,  "though  I  dare  say  it  is  greatly  to 
your  credit;  but  you  stay  away  from  the 
playhouse  because  you  conscientiously  dis 
approve  of  gayety  and  excitement,  while  I 
do  not  go  as  often  as  I  wish  because  it 
seems  an  awful  waste  of  money  which  we 
need  for  more  important  things.  This 
afternoon  the  allurement  was  too  strong 
for  me.  I  was  passing  the  theater  and  I 
saw  that  Monte  Cristo  was  the  bill  of  the 
play,  and  when  I  looked  at  the  pictures — 
well,  it  was  a  bargain  matinee,  and  I  went 
in." 

"If  the  play  is  anything  like  the  book," 
answered  Miss  Parsons,  shortly,  "I  have 
no  desire  to  see  it.  It  always  seemed  to 
me  a  very  cheap  story  of  impossible 
adventure." 

"Ah,"  cried  Agatha,  "that  is  because 
you  have  no  blood  of  soldiers  in  your  veins, 
Sarah  Parsons, ' '  and  her  eyes  kindled  and 
a  flush  of  enthusiasm  came  to  her  face. 
"You  have  never  heard  the  roar  of  battle, 
the  booming  of  cannon,  the  shouts  of  vic 
tory." 

81 


Little  Miss  Dee 


"No,  I  haven't,  I'll  admit/'  snapped 
the  precise  Sarah,  "have  you?' 

"Why  of  course  not;  what  a  ridiculous 
question.  But  you  know  my  father  was  a 
soldier,  and  he  has  told  me  about  it  so 
many  times  that  it  often  seems  that  I  must 
have  been  in  battle.  Mother  used  to  say 
that  all  my  nightmares  took  the  form  of 
war,  and  that  pleased  father  immensely. 
Dear  father!  I  thought  of  him  all  the  time 
I  was  looking  at  Edmond  Dantes,  He 
would  have  been  just  such  a  man  if  he  had 
had  a  chance.  But  father  had  only  one 
chance,  and  before  he  could  improve  it  he 
went  down  with  a  bullet  in  each  leg. 
Sometimes  I  wish  that  Archie  could  have 
been  a  soldier  instead  of  a  lawyer,  and  then 
I  think  of  poor  father,  with  the  doctors 
probing  for  bullets  every  year  or  two,  and 
I  conclude  that  after  all  it  may  be  for  the 
best.  War  is  full  of  dangers. ' ' 

"So  are  clubs, "  put  in  the  sententious 
Sarah.     "The  difference  is,"  she  added, 
dejectedly,  "that  war  destroys  the  body, 
while  clubs  imperil  the  soul." 
82 


Little  Miss  Dee 


"I  wish  you  wouldn't  talk  that  way, 
Sarah  Parsons,"  replied  Agatha,  "and 
least  of  all  just  now,  for  Archie  has  joined 
what  they  call  a  country  club,  and  I  should 
be  terribly  unhappy  if  I  really  believed  that 
I  have  permitted  him  to  do  anything  that  is 
going  to  affect  him  spiritually. ' ' 

"I  don't  know  anything  about  country 
clubs,  and  I  don't  care  to,"  answered  Miss 
Parsons,  "but  you  may  depend  on  it  they 
are  just  as  bad  as  the  rest,  and  productive 
of  just  as  much  misery. ' ' 

"Then  I  should  think  you  would  stand 
up  for  them,"  retorted  Agatha,  a  little 
spitefully,  but  in  a  breath  she  had  repented 
and  went  on:  "Archie  has  so  few  amuse 
ments,  poor  boy,  and  he  is  shut  up  down 
town  all  day  long,  that  it  seems  cruel  to 
deprive  him  of  the  occasional  breaths  of 
fresh  air  he  is  able  to  get  out  in  the  coun 
try.  You  don't  know  how  mean  I  felt  all 
the  afternoon  at  the  theater  where  I  was 
selfishly  enjoying  myself  while  he  was  slav 
ing  at  his  desk.  It  is  true,  after  all,  that 
we  women  never  stop  to  think  how  hard 
83 


Little  Miss  Dee 


men  work.  The  least  we  can  do  is  to 
gratify  their  reasonable  tastes  whenever  the 
opportunity  offers.*' 

"Nonsense!"  said  the  unsympathetic 
Miss  Parsons,  but  Agatha  went  back  to 
her  room  unconvinced  and  unconvincing. 

So  far  as  the  testimony  of  the  world 
could  go  there  was  ample  reason  for 
Agatha's  pride  in  Archibald  Dee.  His 
associates  in  the  law  firm  of  Claxton, 
Faxon  &  Brent,  with  the  assurance  that  he 
would  be  soon  admitted  to  partnership,  felt 
no  hesitation  in  asserting  that  no  more  prom 
ising  young  fellow  could  be  found  in  the 
city's  professional  life.  The  men  about 
town  and  at  the  club  spoke  of  him  with  the 
utmost  enthusiasm,  and  the  young  women 
agreed,  with  a  remarkable  degree  of  femi 
nine  unanimity,  that  no  such  distinct  addi 
tion  to  the  society  set  had  happened  along 
in  several  years.  The  expression  "hap 
pened  along"  was  used  advisedly,  for  it 
was  one  of  the  interesting  features  of  the 
society  of  this  western  metropolis  that  soci 
ety,  as  so  distinguished,  was  conducted 
84 


Little  Miss  Dee 


very  entertainingly  along  lines  of  chance. 
Matrons  with  marriageable  daughters 
looked  kindly  on  the  young  man,  notwith 
standing  his  slender  purse,  and  it  was  said 
by  his  companions,  more  in  congratulation 
and  admiration  than  in  envy,  that  Dee 
could  have  his  pick  of  a  dozen  heiresses. 
In  fairness  to  Archibald  it  must  be  said 
that  he  wore  these  blushing  honors  with 
unaffected  modesty,  and  did  not  even  dis 
cuss  his  brilliant  matrimonial  prospects 
with  Agatha,  who,  moving  in  a  different 
set,  or  strictly  speaking,  no  set  at  all,  had 
little  conception  of  the  staggering  possi 
bilities  open  to  her  adopted  son. 

If  Archibald  Dee  seemed  to  show  a  lack 
of  consideration  for  his  little  mother,  it  was 
more  from  the  excess  of  maternal  devotion 
than  from  his  natural  impulses.  Had  he 
been  accused  of  selfishness  nobody  would 
have  been  more  surprised  and  deeply 
grieved  than  he.  Having  been  accustomed 
all  his  life  to  this  unwearying  attention,  he 
had  come  to  think  that  it  was  part  of  a 
young  man's  natural  equipment,  and  merely 
85 


Little  Miss  Dee 


that  which  any  one  has  a  right  to  look  for 
from  those  who  have  been  responsible  for 
his  education  and  bringing  up.  He  would 
have  declared  at  once  that  he  was  on  a 
common  footing  with  other  fellows  of  his 
set,  receiving  neither  more  nor  less  than 
his  share  of  family  favors.  He  did  not,  it 
is  true,  go  into  the  matter  very  deeply,  but 
it  would  be  hardly  fair  to  expect  a  young 
man  to  take  a  post-graduate  course  in  filial 
ethics  when  he  has  not  had  even  elemen 
tary  instruction.  He  always  spoke  defer 
entially,  even  affectionately,  of  Agatha, 
and  when  the  elderly  ladies  of  his  special 
circles  said,  very  politely  and  very  mean- 
inglessly,  that  they  would  be  charmed  to 
meet  her  whenever  the  opportunity  pre 
sented,  he  thanked  them  warmly  for  their 
friendly  interest  and  the  matter  was 
dropped. 

Not  that  it  ever  occurred  to  Agatha  Dee 
that  it  was  her  right  far  more  than  her 
privilege  to  be  seen  in  the  high  places 
where  this  young  man  chose  to  disport 
himself.  So  far  as  Archibald  was  con- 
86 


Little  Miss  Dee 


cerned  she  had  most  hazy  ideas  of  the  pre 
cise  line  of  distinction  between  right  and 
privilege,  for  self-analysis  was  not  one  of 
her  accomplishments.  Keen  as  she  was 
to  see  the  virtue  and  good  of  others, 
shrewdly  noting,  if  at  once  forgiving,  their 
faults,  she  knew  nothing  of  herself,  and  was 
worried  only  with  the  imaginary  failings, 
which  she  declared  it  must  be  her  constant 
duty  to  try  to  mend.  And  so  she  went 
along  from  day  to  day,  patient,  hopeful, 
strong  in  all  that  is  unselfish  and  sacrifi 
cing,  and  weak  only  in  the  passionate  love 
that  makes  idolatry  of  maternity. 


LITTLE  MISS  DEE'S  "city  house/' 
as  she  humorously  called  it  in  contra 
distinction  to  her  "country  place,"  was 
the  rather  small  apartment  at  the  top  of 
Mrs.  Braidwood's  home  for  a  few  con 
genial  people.  While  at  the  back  of  the 
building,  and  at  the  end  of  a  long  and  not 
particularly  inviting  hall,  it  had  its  advan 
tages  of  location,  for  the  two  narrow  win 
dows  looked  out  on  the  great  expanse  of 
lake  hardly  a  city  block  away.  Along  the 
window  ledges  Agatha  had  planted  flower- 
boxes,  in  order,  as  she  said,  that  she  might 
have  something  to  remind  her  of  the  old 
home  on  the  river  bank,  and  these  she  had 
filled  with  geraniums  and  begonias,  petu 
nias  and  daisies,  hung  around  with  vinca, 
salvia,  and  ivy,  all  in  riotous  profusion,  as 
is  the  glory  of  the  garden  of  the  old-fash 
ioned  sort. 

Regularity  and  system  in  her  personal 
and  domestic  arrangements  had  never  been 


Little  Miss  Dee 


a  severe  course  in  Agatha's  early  training, 
and  the  little  woman  frankly  admitted  that 
the  room  usually  looked  as  if  it  had  just 
suffered  from  a  passing  tornado.  Once 
every  week,  perhaps  spurred  on  by  the 
horror-stricken  Miss  Parsons,  whose  New 
England  thrift  revolted  at  such  an  exhibi 
tion  of  carelessness,  the  occupant  would 
diligently  go  to  work  for  a  general  cleaning 
and  fixing,  and  one  hour  thereafter  the 
figurative  storm  clouds  would  gather,  the 
whirlwind  would  come  rushing  down,  and 
the  artistic  disarray  would  be  again  com 
plete.  "After  all,"  said  the  hopeless  one 
philosophically,  "it  is  much  better  as  it  is, 
for  I  have  noticed  that  the  persons  who 
suffer  most  severely  from  burglars  are 
always  those  who  keep  their  valuables  in 
some  convenient  place  where  they  can  be 
most  easily  found.  Now,  if  it  takes  me 
fifteen  minutes  to  find  anything,  how  much 
longer  would  it  worry  a  burglar  who  has 
not  even  my  knowledge  of  localities  to 
guide  him,  and  by  the  time  he  has  made 
any  important  discoveries,  the  chances  are 
89 


Little  Miss  Dee 


that  the  whole  house  would  be  alarmed  and 
his  capture  would  be  certain.  My  room 
may  not  be  so  pretty  to  look  at,  but  the 
rest  of  the  people  in  the  building  could 
afford  to  pay  me  liberally  for  the  idea;  it 
is  such  a  perfect  trap." 

Thus  amiably  discussing  her  benefits  to 
her  neighbors,  she  would  complete  her  per 
sonal  arrangements,  give  one  half-pleased, 
half-disgusted  glance  at  her  room,  and 
depart  for  her  one  consistent  dissipation, 
a  tramp  through  the  flower  garden  in  the 
park.  There  was  something  in  the  dis 
order  and  recklessness  of  color  in  the  old 
garden,  mercifully  spared  from  the  horrors 
of  horticultural  geometries,  that  called 
back  the  home  in  the  little  country  town, 
and  while  Agatha  wandered  at  will  among 
the  hollyhocks  and  dahlias  and  poppies 
and  asters,  it  seemed  to  her  that  she  was 
no  longer  near  the  grime  and  smoke  and 
roar  of  a  great,  heartless  city,  but  had  gone 
back  to  the  quiet  beauty  and  restfulness  of 
her  childhood;  that  she  was  once  more  in 
the  garden  that  overlooked  the  river,  with 
90 


Little  Miss  Dee 


the  rolling  prairies  stretching  far  into  the 
purple  distance,  and  the  lazy  life  of  a 
dreamer  fed  and  fostered  by  the  gentle 
picture.  Then  she  would  go  to  her  favor 
ite  bench  where  the  hollyhocks  were  the 
proudest  and  most  luxuriant,  and  would  sit 
an  hour  or  more  with  her  thoughts  still  in 
the  past,  wondering  if  the  old  life  were  not 
after  all  the  sweetest,  and  if  even  the 
daughter  of  a  soldier,  with  a  prophecy  and  a 
mission  unfulfilled,  could  find  real  happiness 
in  the  quest  of  the  hitherto  unattainable. 
There  was  apparently  no  reason  why  a 
demure  little  old  maid,  sitting  quietly  on  a 
rustic  bench,  absorbed  in  her  own  reflec 
tions,  and  giving  no  indications  of  a  desire 
to  make  acquaintances,  should  have  at 
tracted  attention,  and  it  was  therefore  a 
suspicious  circumstance  that  a  gentleman 
had  passed  and  repassed  three  and  even 
four  times,  curiously  eying  Agatha,  all 
unconscious  of  the  interest  she  had  excited. 
That  he  was  at  least  externally  a  gentleman 
there  was  every  indication,  and  that  with 
all  his  curiosity  he  seemed  to  shrink  from 
91 


Little  Miss  Dee 


any  impertinent  intrusion  was  another 
assuring  sign.  He  was  a  man  well  along 
in  middle  life,  rather  good  looking  as  men 
go,  correctly  but  not  too  fashionably 
dressed,  and  altogether  the  sort  of  man 
that  appeared  to  have  himself  in  good  con 
trol.  It  was  not  until  Agatha,  still  una 
ware  of  his  presence,  looked  up  that  he 
stepped  forward,  hesitated,  and  then  said, 
apologetically: 

"I  beg  your  pardon,  madam;  I  could 
almost  believe — 1  am  quite  sure — yes,  it  is 
Agatha  Dee!" 

Agatha  was  staring  at  him  helplessly. 
She  had  recognized  the  voice  at  the  first 
word,  and  it  all  seemed  so  in  harmony  with 
the  thoughts  that  had  carried  her  back  more 
than  a  score  of  years.  The  last  time  she 
had  seen  this  man  she  had  sat  on  this  very 
spot — no,  in  the  old  garden  which  it  re 
called,  and  they  had  talked  together  of  his 
life,  of  their  life,  which  was  to  be  one  and 
the  same.  This  was  the  man  who  was 
coming  back  for  her  when  the  hour  of 
emancipation  should  arrive,  and  who  long 
92 


Little  Miss  Dee 


before  that  hour  had  forgotten  both  her  and 
the  promise.  Memories  such  as  that  do 
not  die,  Agatha  Dee,  even  if  the  pain  at 
the  heart  has  stopped,  and  the  haze  of  time 
has  softened  the  impression. 

When  she  did  not  speak  he  thought  that 
she  did  not  remember  him,  and  he  came  a 
little  nearer,  and  began:  "I  am  sorry  that 
you  have  forgotten  me.  I  am — ' ' 

"Herbert  Ainslie,"  she  said,  very 
quietly,  and  if  any  emotion  had  possessed 
her,  it  had  passed  when  she  spoke.  "You 
see  I  have  not  forgotten  you. ' '  And  then, 
with  a  little  smile  Jhat  was  reassuring,  "I 
knew  you  even  before  I  saw  you  closely. 
Voices  do  not  change  so  easily. ' ' 

"I  shall  not  ask  you  to  say  anything 
more  complimentary  than  that,"  he  re 
plied,  good-humoredly,  and  he  stopped 
abruptly  and  held  out  his  hand.  She  put 
out  her  own,  and  as  their  hands  met  they 
looked  into  each  other 's  eyes,  and,  incom 
prehensibly  enough,  both  laughed. 

"You  have  just  come  to  the  city?"  he 
asked. 

93 


Little  Miss  Dee 


"I  have  lived  here  a  year.'* 
"And  have  never  let  me  know  it?" 
"How  long  have  you  lived  here?" 
' '  Nearly  thirty  years,  alas ! ' ' 
"And  have  never  let  me  know  it?" 
He  did  not  laugh  at  this,  for  he  felt  the 
subtle  reproach  in  her  tone,  though  there 
was  no  resentment  in  her  frank,  open  eyes. 
"I  hardly  know  what  to  say  to  that,"  he 
said,  honestly;  "it  is  so  much  like  going 
back  into  some  other  world,  into  another 
life,  that  after  all  these  years  is  more  of  a 
dream  than  a  reality.     May  I  share  this 
bench  with  you,  and  will  you  give  me  just 
a  minute  to  pull  myself  together?     A  chain 
that  has  been  broken  so   long  cannot  be 
fitted  at  once  with  the  right  link. ' ' 

His  manner  was  so  gentle  and  his  tone 
so  soft  that  Agatha  could  not  see  in  him 
the  impetuous,  exacting  boy  who  was  the 
hero  of  her  girlhood  fancy.  She  was 
touched  quite  as  much  by  the  sincerity  of 
his  manner  as  by  the  simplicity  of  his 
words,  and  she  said,  involuntarily,  "You 
have  had  trouble?" 

94 


Little  Miss  Dee 


He  smiled  at  this  as  he  sat  down.  "I 
suppose  trouble  comes  to  us  all  at  one  time 
or  another,  Agatha — may  I  call  you  Agatha? 
— but  my  troubles  have  not  been  serious  or 
lasting.  Shall  I  tell  you  the  short  story  of 
my  humdrum  life?  Possibly  you  know  it 
already.  * ' 

"Only  so  much  as  you  have  communi 
cated  to  me  from  time  to  time. ' ' 

"This  is  my  punishment/'  he  answered, 
smiling  back  at  her;  "but  I  know  from 
your  manner  that  if  my  misdemeanors  are 
not  forgotten  they  are  at  least  forgiven. '  * 

* '  I  was  just  wondering, ' '  she  interrupted, 
"what  particular  crimes  you  men  include 
under  the  head  of  misdemeanors,  and 
whether  they  are  listed  in  the  litany. ' ' 

"At  least,"  he  said,  with  the  same 
gentleness  of  voice,  "we  may  hope  that 
they  are  always  barred  by  the  statute  of 
limitations — and  by  repentance.  If  the 
quality  of  feminine  mercy  is  to  be  strained, 
what  hope  for  any  of  us?  I  never  was  cut 
out  for  a  hero,  Agatha,  and  worse  than 
that,  I  seem  always  to  have  fought  a  losing 
95 


Little  Miss  Dee 


fight  against  myself.  Perhaps  it  was  the 
triumph  of  mammon  over  a  better  spirit, 
or  possibly  I  left  the  country  town  too 
soon." 

This  was  getting  on  dangerous  ground, 
and  Agatha  dexterously  interposed.  "At 
last  we  have  found  the  missing  link,  and 
you  are  leaving  the  old  home.  What 
next?" 

So  he  went  on  to  tell  her  of  his  early  strug 
gles  in  the  city,  how  he  had  begun  his  uphill 
fight  with  the  one  end  in  view,  the  accu 
mulation  of  a  fortune.  Incidentally  to  this 
he  had  married,  luckily  the  world  said, 
happily  his  own  domestic  relations  proved. 
No  great  riches  had  come  to  him,  but  he 
had  been  successful  as  a  reasonable  man 
might  wish.  For  five  years  he  had  been  a 
widower,  for  half  that  time  out  of  active 
business,  with  only  himself  to  provide  for 
and  only  his  own  pleasures  to  consult.  Not 
a  very  heroic  life  he  admitted,  but  a  clean 
one,  and  not  wholly  unprofitable.  He  had 
endowed  no  universities,  founded  no  hos 
pitals,  and  made  no  large  public  donations, 
96 


Little  Miss  Dee 


but  he  was  not  altogether  sordid,  and  he 
added,  half  jestingly,  he  was  earnestly  try 
ing  to  live  down  all  errors  and  crimes  of 
the  past.  "So  much  for  my  unprofitable 
story,"  he  concluded;  "now  what  of  your 
self?" 

"A  far  less  interesting  recital  than  your 
own.  Nothing  has  ever  happened  to  me. 
You  know  nothing  ever  does  happen  to  our 
family.  Father  used  to  say  that  it  is  the 
curse  of  the  prophecy,  and  I  dare  say  he 
was  right. ' ' 

"Yes,  I  remember  the  prophecy,  and  a 
particularly  flattering  one  it  was.  By  the 
way,  who  is  attending  to  that  branch  of  the 
family  duty  just  now?" 

"My  boy." 

"Your  boy?"  AinshVs  voice  betrayed 
his  surprise  at  this  intelligence.  "O,  I 
see.  I  had  forgotten  for  the  moment  how 
time  has  flown,  and  that  you  have  a  boy. 
And-d-d,  your  husband? — I  trust — he  is 
well?" 

"I  hope  he  is,  especially  if  I  am  to  see 
him  very  soon.  I  had  also  forgotten  that 
97 


Little  Miss  Dee 


you  are  not  familiar  with  your  old  home 
and  its  doings.  You  did  not  pay  us  the 
honor  of  a  visit,  I  believe. ' ' 

Ainslie  shook  his  head,  and  said,  gravely: 
"That  is  a  sore  point  with  me.  For 
several  years  I  was  ashamed  to  go  home, 
for  I  felt  that  I  had  not  progressed  enough 
to  warrant  it.  Then — but  you  know  how 
it  is — new  scenes,  new  people — " 

"And  old  friends  forgotten,"  interjected 
Agatha,  gently.  "Yes,  I  know  how  it  is; 
but, ' '  she  added,  as-  if  to  check  the  protest 
that  came  to  his  lips,  "you  must  let  me 
finish  my  story.  My  boy  is  my  adopted 
son.  I  have  never  married.  In  fact,  I 
may  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  it  is 
much  easier  to  look  after  an  adopted  son 
than  a  husband.  The  rest  of  the  story  is 
short.  We  came  to  the  city,  and  are  living 
at  Mrs.  Braidwood's.  Archibald  is  in  the 
law  office  of  Claxton,  Faxon  &  Brent,  and 
is  to  be  taken  into  the  firm  shortly. ' ' 

' '  I  know  the  firm,  and  I  know  the  Braid- 
wood  house.  In  fact,  I  have  often  called 
there.  When  I  came  to  town  Tom  Braid- 
98 


Little  Miss  Dee 


wood  was  one  of  our  most  successful  busi 
ness  men.  I  hope  there  is  no  reason  why 
I  may  not  call  again,  and  very  soon. ' ' 

Agatha  smiled,  and  said  as  she  rose  from 
the  bench:  "I  have  no  doubt  that  your  old 
friend,  Tom's  wife,  will  be  delighted  to  see 
you,  and  for  my  part,  I  shall  always  con 
sider  it  a  pleasure." 

"Then  why  do  you  smile?"  he  asked,  a 
little  brusquely. 

"Because,  Herbert — you  see  that  I  am 
calling  you  Herbert,  just  for  old  time's 
sake — because  you  have,  as  I  remember, 
such  a  queer  idea  of  time.  The  last  time 
you  said  you  were  coming  to  see  me  you 
decided  to  wait  twenty-five  years,  and  you 
will  forgive  me  if  I  fear  that  we  should  be 
waiting  still  were  it  not  that  we  happen  to 
be  particularly  fond  of  flowers  and  of  a 
morning  walk  in  the  park. ' ' 

They  were  going  slowly  through  the  en 
trance  of  the  garden,  and  Herbert  Ainslie 
was  now  in  a  mood  to  magnify  his  own 
transgressions.  '  *  I  may  have  a  bad  mem 
ory,  Agatha,"  he  said,  "but  I  heartily 
99 


Little  Miss  Dee 


wish  I  could  forget  some  of  the  things  that 
will  always  trouble  me.  Let  me  be  frank, 
for  we  have  known  each  other  well  enough 
to  speak  without  hesitation.  Your  whole 
manner  tells  me  that  you  are  happy,  and 
that  nothing  has  left  a  cloud  on  your  life. 
I  am  not  foolish  enough  to  fancy  that  any 
little  folly  of  mine  has  had  the  slightest 
effect  on  your  attitude  toward  the  world, 
but  I  am  old  enough  to  know  that  young 
men  often  do  caddish  things  through  pure 
thoughtlessness,  and  it  was  my  misfortune, 
or  my  crime,  to  deserve  the  adjective. ' ' 

The  woman  felt  her  heart  beat  faster  as 
he  spoke,  and  she  answered,  softly:  "What 
ever  misfortunes — not  crimes — we  may 
have  endured  in  the  past,  rest  assured  they 
have  been  long  since  forgotten.  You  are 
right  when  you  say  that  I  am  happy,  for 
everything  has  conspired  to  bring  me  hap 
piness,  and  even  those  things  which  at  the 
time  we  hope  we  may  forget  might  add  to 
our  happiness  as  a  memory  of  the  past. ' ' 

"Then,"  he  said,  rather  precipitately, 
"our  own  past  may  be  a  happy  memory." 
100 


Little  Miss  Dee 


She  blushed  at  this.  "That  is  hardly 
fair  to  me,  for  you  are  drawing  a  special 
conclusion  from  a  general  statement." 
She  hesitated  and  turned  and  looked  at 
him  with  frank,  honest  eyes.  "You  said 
that  we  have  known  each  other  well  enough 
to  speak  plainly.  I  have  often  wondered 
how  I  should  feel  and  act  if  fate  should 
throw  us  together  as  fate  has  done.  It  is 
easier  for  me  than  I  believed  possible,  so 
you  see  that  the  past,  if  not  utterly  forgot 
ten,  is  remembered  only  as  an  incident  that 
leaves  no  pain." 

Ainslie  shrugged  his  shoulders.  The 
quick  workings  of  the  feminine  mind  were 
too  confusing  for  his  slower  reasoning.  Of 
a  naturally  sentimental  disposition,  he  had 
been  stirred  to  pleasant  fancies  by  the 
meeting  with  his  youthful  ideal,  and  while 
he  was  perfectly  honest  in  his  self-accusa 
tion,  it  did  not  gratify  his  vanity  that  his 
expressed  wish  should  be  so  cordially 
granted.  "Very  likely  I  have  exaggerated 
my  own  sins,  which  may  be  merely  another 
way  of  magnifying  my  own  importance, ' ' 

101 


Little  Miss  Dee 


he  said.     "And  now?*'  he  added,  with  an 
attempt  at  a  smile. 

"And  now,5'  she  smiled  back,  "I  am 
going  to  take  this  car. ' ' 

He  signaled  to  the  car,  then  said,  a  little 
quizzically,  "Please  do  not  forget  to  tell 
Mrs.  Braidwood  that  in  spite  of  my  dis 
tinguished  reputation  for  forgetfulness,  I 
shall  give  myself  the  honor  of  calling  very 
soon." 

Something  in   his  voice   smote  Agatha 

with  reproach,    and   impulsively  she  held 

out  her  hand.     "Don't  misunderstand  me, 

Herbert,"    she   said,  almost   appealingly. 

''I,  too,  shall  be  glad  to  see  you." 

"Even  if  I  speak  of  the  old  days?" 

"Even  if  we  both  speak  of  the  old  days. ' ' 

And  Agatha,  though  she  smiled  as  she 

repeated  his  words,  as  if  in  jest,  had  no 

sooner  seated  herself  in  the  car  and  waved 

farewell,  than   she  felt   an  unaccountable 

fluttering,  and  a  lump  rose  in  her  throat, 

and  two  particularly  obtrusive  tears  came 

to  her   eyes,  and  when  she  reached   her 

room  and  had  securely  locked  herself  in, 

IO2 


Little  Miss  Dee 


she  gave  herself  over  to  one  of  those  weep 
ing  spells  which  are  specially  designed  for 
the  relief  of  the  overcharged  feminine 
bosom — all  very  mysterious  and  inexplic 
able.  But  when  she  had  cried  herself  out, 
and  had  composed  herself  for  the  evening, 
she  took  advantage  of  Archibald's  presence 
to  inquire,  quite  casually,  "Archie,  did  you 
ever  at  the  office  or  the  club  run  across  a 
gentleman  of  the  name  of  Ainslie?" 

And  Archibald  stopped  superintending 
the  rearrangement  of  his  tie  to  ask,  "Ains 
lie?  Is  he  a  queer  old  chap,  rather  stiff  in 
his  dress  and  formal  in  his  manner?" 

"Well,"  replied  Agatha,  not  recogniz 
ing  the  description  of  the  man  who  had 
seemed  to  her  notably  elegant,  "he  is  cer 
tainly  not  old,  and  I  don't  think  I  should 
call  him  queer.  But  he  may  be  a  little 
precise. ' ' 

"Rather  stilted  in  his  talk,  and  very 
ceremonious?" 

"Perhaps,"  said  Agatha,  doubtfully. 

"There  is  such  a  man  who  comes  to  the 
office,"  went  on  Archibald;  "I  believe  he 
103 


Little  Miss  Dee 


is  a  retired  capitalist,  or  something  of  that 
sort,  at  least  he  never  seems  to  be  pressed 
fortune.  Do  you  know  him?" 

"Yes — that  is — at  least — I  did  know  a 
man  who  partly  answers  your  description. 
Herbert  Ainslie  was  his  name.  He  lived 
in  our  town  many  years  ago." 

"Herbert  Ainslie?  That's  the  man. 
And  he  may  be  a  man  worth  knowing,  for 
he's  as  rich  as  a  Jew." 

"O,"  said  Agatha. 


104 


TO  those  who  were  in  Mr.  Archibald 
Dee's  confidence,  or  were  well 
versed  in  the  symptoms  of  the  most  com 
mon  of  human  failings,  it  had  been  known 
for  some  time  that  the  young  gentleman 
was  wrestling  with  an  acutely  sentimental 
passion.  He  was  too  well  balanced  to  per 
mit  this  affliction  to  interfere  with  his 
regular  line  of  duties,  and  he  was  too  self- 
contained  to  allow  his  infirmity  to  lead  him 
into  foolish  and  ridiculous  excesses  of  dress 
or  demeanor,  but  it  was  not  to  be  denied 
that  he  who  could  have  presumably  his 
choice  of  available  maidens  in  the  market, 
had  succumbed  at  last,  and  without  pre 
meditation.  Much  speculation  followed 
the  first  rumors  touching  the  happy  object 
of  Mr.  Dee's  fancy.  Could  it  be  Miss 
Sophie  Ingold,  whose  father  had  accumu 
lated  in  trade  a  sufficient  counter-irritant 
for  Miss  Sophie's  unquestioned  lack  of 
physical  charms?  Or  Miss  Mabel  Ormsby, 
105 


Little  Miss  Dee 


very  pretty  and  discouragingly  poor?  Or 
Miss  Willie  Whiteley,  tall,  stately,  and 
forbiddingly  intellectual?  Or  Miss  Cassie 
Winthrop,  whose  beautiful  voice  would 
have  enriched  a  church  choir  had  she  been 
sufficiently  spiritual,  and  had  not  her  social 
position  absolutely  prohibited? 

In  turn,  and  with  an  undertone  of  sad 
ness,  these  agreeable  and  eligible  young 
women  positively  denied  the  accusation, 
but  all  protestations  were  futile,  until,  to 
relieve  the  public  mind,  and  possibly  to 
remove  the  suspicion  that  the  young  ladies 
under  fire  could  by  any  chance  achieve  so 
glorious  a  distinction,  Miss  Luella  Blatch- 
ford  admitted  that  she  was  the  favored 
goddess.  Miss  Blatchford  was  not  a  prime 
favorite  in  the  exclusive  circles  in  which 
she  and  Archibald  Dee  moved,  and  the 
announcement,  corroborated  by  the  gentle 
man,  that  she  had  captured  the  lion  of  the 
winter,  was  received  with  many  expres 
sions  of  dissatisfaction  when  the  lion  and 
Miss  Blatchford  were  not  present.  It  was 
remarked  by  Miss  Blatchford 's  feminine 
106 


Little  Miss  Dee 


companions,  regretfully  of  course,  that  her 
temper  was  uncertain;  that  she  was  bold 
and  forward;  that  her  manner  was  cold 
and  haughty;  and  that  she  had  no  larger 
share  of  good  looks  than  is  reasonably 
allowed  by  law.  All  of  which  must  have 
been  measurably  true,  as  the  allegations 
were  never  specifically  denied,  and  as  it 
was  currently  reported  that  when  Mr.  Dee 
asked  her  father  for  the  young  woman's 
hand,  that  bestower  of  the  blessing  be 
trayed  unmistakable  emotions  of  astonish 
ment. 

The  conscientious  novelist  or  chronicler 
of  human  history  is  never  so  foolish  as  to 
try  to  explain  why  young  people  fall  in  love 
one  with  another,  or  to  account  for  the 
vagaries  of  the  human  passion,  which  seem 
so  ill  in  accord  with  reasonable  expecta 
tions.  It  probably  never  will  be  known 
why  Mr.  Archibald  Dee  was  attracted  to 
Miss  Luella  Blatchford,  and  why,  though 
once  attracted,  he  remained  faithful  to  that 
young  woman.  But  it  may  be  pointed  out 
that  while  Miss  Blatchford' s  temper  was 
107 


Little  Miss  Dee 


uncertain  her  fortune  was  not,  for  she  had 
been  provided  with  an  independent  income 
by  a  thoughtful  relative — not  large  enough 
happily  to  bring  to  her  accepted  lover  the 
charge  of  fortune  hunting,  but  sufficiently 
comfortable  to  assist  a  young  and  ambi 
tious  lawyer  when  his  clients  were  slow  in 
payments.  Notwithstanding  the  invidious 
comments  of  her  women  friends,  Miss 
Blatchford  was  not  without  physical  attrac 
tions,  with  a  face  of  which  the  beauty  was 
lessened  by  a  somewhat  scornful  expres 
sion  quite  in  keeping  with  her  nature.  The 
Blatchfords  lived  in  a  fashionable  quarter 
of  the  city,  and  fully  sustained  the  reputa 
tion  so  proudly  earned  by  the  first  families. 
Congratulations  had  been  offered  for 
several  days  in  exclusive  circles  before 
Archibald  confided  to  Little  Miss  Dee  the 
secret  of  his  great  happiness.  Up  to  this 
time  Agatha's  acquaintance  with  the 
Blatchfords  and  others  of  that  awe-inspir 
ing  set  had  been  confined  to  occasional 
perusal  of  the  society  columns  of  the  daily 
papers,  but  while  she  knew  that  such  an 
108 


Little  Miss  Dee 


alliance,  so  far  as  outward  appearances  go, 
was  much  to  be  desired,  it  could  not  occur 
to  her  that  any  young  woman  would  not  be 
a  distinct  gainer  by  a  marriage  with  Archi 
bald  Dee.  It  was  true  that  there  was  no 
blood  of  the  Dees  or  of  the  Calverleys  in 
his  veins,  but  he  was  indorsed  by  and 
responsible  to  both  those  illustrious  fami 
lies,  and  that  was  sufficient  assurance  for 
the  most  exacting.  Agatha  Dee  was  a 
paradox  in  the  social  relation.  She  who 
was  all  humility  and  gentleness  to  every 
one  with  whom  she  came  in  contact  was 
easily  stirred  by  the  discussion  of  family 
greatness,  and  appreciated  to  the  last  degree 
the  importance  of  old  and  aristocratic  fam 
ily  connection.  At  times  she  would  deplore 
this  satisfaction  as  an  inherited  failing,  and 
again  she  would  be  thankful  that  whatever 
reverses  might  come,  nothing  could  rob  her 
of  the  pride  of  ancestry.  She  was  in  this 
self-congratulatory  frame  of  mind  when  she 
sought  out  the  faithful  Miss  Parsons  and 
announced  her  intention  of  making  an  im 
mediate  call  on  Miss  Blatchford. 
109 


Little  Miss  Dee 


"I  don't  think  I'd  do  that,"  said  Miss 
Parsons,  cautiously. 

"And  why  not?"  demanded  Agatha. 

"Well,  in  the  first  place,  you  have  never 
met  her." 

"Which  is  a  very  good  reason  why  I  am 
going  to  meet  her.  How  can  we  ever 
meet  unless  we  make  some  effort?" 

"But  you  know  she  belongs  to  a  very 
superior  family. ' ' 

'  '  Of  course  she  does, ' '  Agatha  answered, 
proudly.  "If  she  did  not  how  could  she 
expect  to  interest  Archie?  But  you  know, 
Sarah  Parsons,  and  it  seems  unnecessary 
to  say  it,  we  belong  to  a  superior  family 
too,  and  after  all  there  is  a  good  old  say 
ing  down  home  that  'folks  is  folks.'  " 

"Yes,  I  know,  but  that's  down  home, 
and  such  sayings  are  not  always  accepted 
in  the  city.  Here  there  are  folks  and 
folks." 

The  puzzled  look  on  Agatha's  face 
showed  that  she  did  not  clearly  compre 
hend.  "I  must  admit,  Sarah  Parsons," 
she  said,  "that  I  do  not  exactly  grasp  your 
no 


Little  Miss  Dee 


meaning,  but  I  am  not  going  to  be  deficient 
in  my  duty,  as  I  see  it,  and  if  I  do  not  call 
on  Miss  Blatchford  it  is  very  likely  that  she 
will  think  I  am  unfriendly  or  opposing  her 
marriage,  and  you  know,"  she  added, 
gently,  "I  would  not  for  the  world  give 
her  a  moment's  sorrow  or  uneasiness." 

"Perhaps,"  suggested  Miss  Parsons, 
diplomatically,  "it  would  be  better  for  you 
to  allow  the  young  woman  to  call  on  you. 
It  seems  to  me  that  this  would  be  much 
the  more  dignified  and  proper  way. ' ' 

"It  would,"  replied  Agatha,  "if  I  were 
foolish  enough  to  stand  on  formality  and 
inexcusable  pride,  but  it  may  be  that  she 
is  very  busy,  while  I  have  plenty  of  time, 
and  more  than  that  I  have  a  natural  and 
proper  curiosity  to  see  how  the  young 
woman  lives.  Archibald  has  been  accus 
tomed  to  the  very  best,  and  I  shall  be  ter 
ribly  disappointed  if  he  is  likely  to  be 
deprived  of  any  of  his  comforts. ' ' 

With  this  excellent  resolution  firmly  se 
cured,  Agatha  arrayed  herself  in  her  most 
sumptuous  apparel  and  started  on  her 
in 


Little  Miss  Dee 


friendly  errand.  Now,  while  the  styles 
had  changed,  as  styles  capriciously  will, 
since  Agatha  had  journeyed  from  the  coun 
try,  she  had  been  true  to  such  fashions  of 
a  previous  generation,  and  to  such  ele 
mentary  principles  of  simple  elegance  as 
she  deemed  appropriate  to  a  woman  of  her 
age  and  position.  At  the  same  time  she 
could  not  help  falling  somewhat  under  the 
spell  of  city  regulations  and  ideas,  and  the 
result  was  a  combination  of  bizarre  effects 
that  startled  the  beholder.  But  on  this 
momentous  occasion  she  decided  that  she 
must  take  unusual  pains  with  her  attire,  so 
she  carefully  brought  out  her  very  best 
black  silk  and  all  her  laces  and  all  her  most 
precious  ornaments  and  spread  them  ad 
miringly  on  the  bed.  And  when  an  hour 
later  she  emerged  from  the  house  in  this 
finery,  her  little  white  curls  peeping  out 
from  her  lace-trimmed  bonnet,  the  jabot  of 
lace  fastened  by  a  cameo  breastpin,  her 
white  handkerchief — more  lace — protruding 
from  her  belt,  her  black  silk  mitts  carefully 
drawn  on,  just  showing  the  garnet  ring  on 

112 


Little  Miss  Dee 


her  finger  and  surmounted  by  heavy,  chased 
gold  bracelets,  one  might  have  thought  that 
an  old  portrait  had  stepped  down  from  its 
frame. 

Agatha  debated  long  with  herself  as  to 
the  manner  of  proceeding  to  the  confer 
ence.  "It  is  not  so  very  far,"  she  said, 
"and  I  could  walk  just  as  well  as  not,  but 
that  would  be  hardly  proper,  considering 
the  nature  of  my  mission,  and  I  am  too 
dressed  up  to  take  ordinary  means.  As 
for  street  cars  they  are  out  of  the  question, 
for  they  do  not  bring  me  within  two  blocks 
of  the  house. ' '  She  sighed  as  she  thought 
of  squandering  so  much  money  on  her  per 
sonal  vanity,  "But  then,"  she  reasoned, 
"it  would  please  Archie  to  know  that  I 
went  in  good  style  and  showed  his  friends 
that  we  have  correct  ideas. ' '  Accordingly 
she  called  a  cab  and  rolled  away  in  great 
dignity  and  state.  Whatever  the  Blatch- 
ford  neighborhood  may  have  thought  of 
Little  Miss  Dee,  proceeding  leisurely  to 
her  destination  in  an  open  hansom,  she 
confessed  to  herself  that  the  neighborhood 


Little  Miss  Dee 


was  perfectly  satisfactory,  and  that  so  far 
as  externals  go  she  could  not  have  chosen 
more  wisely  for  Archie  than  he  had  chosen 
for  himself.  So  pleased  was  she  that  the 
smile  of  gratification  was  still  illuminating 
her  face  when  in  response  to  the  maid's 
announcement  Miss  Blatchford  appeared 
on  the  scene. 

In  addition  to  her  other  qualifications 
Miss  Blatchford  possessed  some  very  de 
cided  opinions  as  to  the  proprieties  of  life, 
and  the  unexpected  arrival  of  Miss  Dee, 
however  commendable  the  impulse,  did 
not  appeal  forcibly  to  her  sense  of  the  fit 
ness  of  things.  ' '  Because  I  have  consented 
to  marry  Archibald,"  she  said,  rather 
petulantly  to  herself,  "it  does  not  follow  that 
I  must  be  burdened  with  his  whole  outfit  of 
relations,"  and  with  this  thought  in  her 
mind,  her  face  was  even  more  forbidding 
than  usual  as  she  came  into  the  reception- 
room. 

In  rehearsing  the  scene  while  she  was 
dressing  Agatha  had  pictured  herself  ap 
proaching  Miss  Blatchford,  drawing  her 
"4 


Little  Miss  Dee 


fondly  to  her  bosom  and  affectionately  and 
reassuringly  giving  her  a  maternal  kiss. 
One  glance  at  the  young  woman's  face, 
however,  convinced  her  that  it  would  be 
discreet  to  alter  this  plan  of  operations. 
Still  she  was  not  disposed  to  be  wholly  put 
out  by  any  frostiness  which  might  yield  to 
gentle  treatment,  and  she  cordially  held 
out  her  hand,  which  fell  just  short  of  Miss 
Blatchford's  finger  tips.  "I  have  come  to 
see  you,  and  to  congratulate  you,  my 
dear,"  she  said. 

"Ah,  indeed?"  replied  the  amiable 
Luella. 

"I  dare  say  it  isn't  customary,"  went 
on  Agatha,  recalling  the  conversation  with 
Miss  Parsons,  "but  I  did  want  you  to 
know  exactly  how  I  feel  in  a  matter  which 
so  deeply  concerns  Archibald's  happiness. 
You  know  he  is  my  adopted  son. ' ' 

"I  am  not  sure,  but  I  think  I  have 
heard  him  mention  it,"  was  Miss  Blatch 
ford's  cordial  response.  And  with  this  she 
looked  listlessly  about  the  room,  as  if  to 
say,  "What  next?" 


Little  Miss  Dee 


Agatha  coughed  to  conceal  a  measure  of 
nervousness  caused  by  her  unexpected  re 
ception,  and  then  she  said,  very  gently, 
"Archie  does  not  know  that  I  have  come 
to  see  you  this  afternoon,  but  I  thought  it 
would  be  well  for  us  to  get  acquainted  at 
once,  and  I  presume  that  your  time  is 
much  taken  up  with  your  domestic  duties 
— bless  me,  what  a  big  house  you  have — 
and  it  is  always  easy  for  me  to  get  away. 
We  are  living  at  Mrs.  Braidwood's.  No 
doubt  you  know  her;  she  has  lived  so 
many  years  in  the  city.  What  a  charming 
woman  she  is,  so  simple  and  unaffected. ' ' 

"I  don't  believe  I  have  ever  had  the 
pleasure  of  meeting  Mrs.  Braidwood," 
returned  the  affable  Luella,  "but  I  am 
glad  for  your  sake  that  she  is  charming. 
You  were  saying — " 

By  this  time  Agatha  had  lost  much  of 
her  composure.  "Why,  really,  I  don't 
know  exactly  what  I  was  saying.  I  think 
we  were  talking  about  Archie.  He  is  a 
dear  boy,  Miss  Blatchford,  and  deserves  all 
the  happiness  that  I  feel  you  will  give  him. ' ' 
116 


Little  Miss  Dee 


Even  the  icy  Luella  was  not  proof 
against  this  burst  of  affection,  and  she 
answered,  with  a  warmth  almost  human, 
"I  hope  we  shall  be  quite  happy;  thank 
you  very  much,  Miss  Dee." 

There  was  another  pause,  and  Agatha 
fingered  her  bracelets  nervously.  She 
looked  out  of  the  window  and  caught  sight 
of  the  cabman.  "  Dear  me, ' '  she  thought, 
"I  am  paying  for  that  cab  by  the  hour, 
but  I  must  be  careful  not  to  show  any 
signs  of  uneasiness,  or  the  young  lady  will 
think  I  am  not  used  to  these  extrava 
gances."  And  then  she  said,  "I  see  that 
the  horse  is  getting  restive.  Now  you  will 
come  to  see  me,  will  you  not,  my  dear?  It 
will  not  seem  so  much  like  losing  Archie  if 
we  get  well  acquainted.  * ' 

"I  think  I  may  promise  myself  that 
pleasure,"  responded  the  affectionate 
Luella,  "but  as  you  said  a  moment  ago,  I 
am  very  busy  and  my  time  is  much  taken 
up.  Of  course  you  know  the  wedding  is 
not  immediate." 

"To  be  honest  with  you,  my  dear,  I 
117 


Little  Miss  Dee 


don't  know  very  much  about  it.  You  see 
Archie  has  hardly  had  time  to  give  me  any 
of  the  particulars  further  than  the  mere 
announcement  of  the  engagement,  and  he 
isn't  to  be  taken  into  the  firm  until  the 
first  of  the  year. " 

Miss  Blatchford  suppressed  a  slight 
yawn.  "Mr.  Dee  has  not  confided  any  of 
his  business  arrangements  to  me,  and  I 
was  not  thinking  of  him  when  I  spoke.  I 
meant  that  it  would  not  be  convenient  for 
me  to  be  married  at  present. ' ' 

"Oh,"  said  Agatha,  and  with  all  her 
kindness  of  heart  and  charity  for  every 
body  it  began  to  be  borne  vaguely  in  on 
her  that  perhaps  Archie  had  not  chosen  so 
wisely,  for  all  his  superior  wisdom  and  ac 
quaintance  with  society.  "Then,"  she 
went  on,  "you  will  have  plenty  of  time  to 
know  each  other  well  and  to  examine  your 
hearts  before  it  is  too  late."  She  rose  to 
go,  and  it  seemed  to  her  that  in  rising  also 
Miss  Blatchford  displayed  more  alacrity 
than  had  hitherto  characterized  her  move 
ments.  "I  hope  you  will  not  think  I  am 
nS 


Little  Miss  Dee 


presumptuous  in  showing  this  anxiety  to 
meet  you  and  to  become  well  acquainted. ' ' 

"O,  not  at  all.  I  am  very  glad,  I'm 
sure.  When  we  are  married  you  must  let 
me  see  a  good  deal  of  you.  It  will  always 
give  me  pleasure  to  entertain  any  of  Mr. 
Dee's  family  and  friends." 

"I  don't  know,"  soliloquized  Agatha, 
as  she  rolled  home,  "that  I  am  quite  cer 
tain  that  I  invested  two  dollars  very  profit 
ably  to-day.  But  perhaps  it  is  all  my 
imagination.  Naturally  the  young  lady 
was  ill  at  ease,  as  I  have  no  doubt  I  should 
be  if  I  were  similarly  placed.  That  was  a 
great  deal  of  money  to  spend  for  the  gratifi 
cation  of  curiosity,  although  I  shall  not 
complain  if  it  turns  out  well.  I  wonder  if 
the  maid  told  her  that  I  came  in  a  cab. 
Archie  will  be  disappointed  if  she  does  not 
know  it.  If  I  had  suspected  that  she  was 
not  coming  to  the  door  or  going  to  the  win 
dow,  I  might  just  as  easily  have  walked. ' ' 

This  torturing  doubt  threw  a  gloom  over 
Agatha's  spirits,  and  she  had  hardly  rallied 
from  the  depression  when  Archibald  came 
119 


Little  Miss  Dee 


home  and  heard  the  particulars  of  the  ex 
pedition.  Archibald  Dee,  like  many  young 
men  of  inexperience,  felt  ill  at  ease.  He 
was  loyal  and  just  enough  to  appreciate  the 
motives  that  prompted  the  visit,  and  his 
better  nature  told  him  that  he  must  stand 
by  one  who  deserved  far  more  than  he 
could  offer,  but  he  feared  ridicule  hardly 
less  than  he  dreaded  "scenes,"  and  he 
found  himself  miserably  wavering  between 
love  and  duty  on  the  one  side  and  love  and 
banter  on  the  other. 

"My  dear  boy,"  said  Agatha,  all  un 
conscious  of  this  struggle,  "your  happiness 
is  worth  everything  to  me,  and  if  I  can 
know  that  you  are  going  to  be  happy,  that 
is  satisfaction  enough.  This  young  lady 
must  be  a  very  superior  girl  or  you  would 
not  have  been  attracted  to  her,  and  I  hope 
she  will  prove  to  be  all  that  you  expect. 
She  is  certainly  good  looking,  and  has  a 
deal  of  manner,  which  one  becomes  accus 
tomed  to  in  time.  I  don't  think  I  made 
much  of  an  impression,  but  I  fancy  she 
didn't  see  my  cab." 

1 20 


Little  Miss  Dee 


And  Archibald,  who  had  shaken  off  his 
cowardly  misgivings,  replied  in  that  light 
caressing  way  which  was  always  followed 
by  Agatha's  unconditional  surrender: 
"You  seem  to  forget,  my  dear  little 
mother,  that  a  cab  is  not  likely  to  over 
whelm  Miss  Blatchford.  You  see  she  is 
rather  accustomed  to  that  sort  of  thing,  and 
takes  it  for  granted.  But  when  she  knows 
you  as  I  know  you" — and  here  he  patted 
her  affectionately — "she  will  love  you  as 
we  all  love  you. ' ' 

And  with  this  tribute  to  womanly  and 
maternal  virtue  the  conquering  Archibald 
gave  his  little  mother  a  hasty  peck  on  the 
forehead  and  went  off  to  his  club.  And 
Agatha  looked  after  him  with  swimming 
eyes,  and  wondered  if  in  all  the  world 
another  such  paragon  of  manly  goodness 
and  elegance  could  be  found.  ' '  I  tell  you, 
Sarah  Parsons, ' '  she  said,  as  later  she  con 
fided  her  experiences  and  impressions  to 
that  well-meaning  but  pessimistic  woman, 
"the  Lord  has  never  forsaken  us  yet,  and  I 
feel  that  He  will  remain  with  us  to  the  end. " 

121 


THE  accession  of  Archibald  Dee  to 
the  highly  respected  and  influential 
firm  of  Claxton,  Faxon  &  Dee,  attorneys 
and  counselors  at  law,  was  speedily  fol 
lowed  by  the  marriage  of  the  junior  mem 
ber  to  the  accomplished  and  austere  Miss 
Blatchford.  Of  this  brilliant  function  the 
contemporary  press  spoke  in  the  most 
glowing  terms,  conceding  the  felicity  of  the 
union,  and  giving  such  space  to  particulars 
as  the  social  station  of  the  Blatchfords  de 
manded.  Agatha  had  not  been  a  conspicu 
ous  feature  of  the  festivities,  and  in  the 
excitement  of  the  occasion  she  might  have 
been  overlooked  altogether  had  it  not  been 
for  the  forethought  of  old  Blatchford,  the 
father,  who  kept  her  in  rather  close  com 
munication,  perhaps  in  verification  of  the 
trite  proverb  that  misery  loves  company. 
The  senior  Blatchford  was  not  completely 
in  touch  with  the  high  life  by  which  he  had 
of  late  years  been  surrounded,  and  as  his 

122 


Little  Miss  Dee 


mission  was  chiefly  that  of  one  who  receives 
and  pays  the  bills,  he  was  by  common  con 
sent  of  the  family  permitted  to  vanish  and 
enjoy  himself  in  his  own  darkened  and 
benighted  way  whenever  a  social  irruption 
was  scheduled.  During  the  engagement 
season  he  had  formally  called  on  Agatha, 
and  finding  her  country  born  and  bred  like 
himself,  he  had  secretly  opened  his  heart 
and  confided  to  her  that  the  existence  of 
the  head  of  a  fashionable  family  bears  no 
very  distant  resemblance  to  a  bed  of 
thorns,  a  confession  which  Agatha  had  no 
special  desire  to  dispute. 

Accordingly,  when  after  the  ceremony 
at  the  church,  old  Blatchford  had  run  across 
Agatha  at  the  family  residence,  looking 
very  forlorn  and  despondent,  and  not  at  all 
sure  of  her  bearings,  he  had  rounded  her 
into  line  and  implored  her  in  a  whisper  to 
stick  to  him,  and  in  no  event  to  desert  him 
in  the  hour  of  tribulation.  So  Agatha 
stood  up  for  a  wearisome  period,  very  stiff 
and  still  very  miserable,  perfectly  conscious 
that  something  was  the  matter  with  her 
123 


Little  Miss  Dee 


wedding  gown,  and  listening  mechanically 
to  the  stream  of  names  that  flowed  into 
her  ear  after  the  manner  of  perfunctory 
introductions.  And  at  the  close  of  the 
presentations  and  congratulations  old 
Blatchford,  moist  and  wretched,  carried 
her  off  to  a  refreshment  table,  where  they 
were  jostled  and  pushed  and  trampled 
upon,  but  otherwise  ignored,  until  Archi 
bald  and  Luella  came  down  for  the  fond 
farewells.  Long  afterward  Agatha  re 
membered  that  she  had  reached  up  and 
kissed  Luella' s  cold  and  unresponsive  lips, 
and  had  burst  into  tears  when  she  threw 
her  arms  around  her  boy.  And  Archibald 
had  kissed  her  affectionately  before  that 
whole  fashionable  company,  and  had  said 
in  words  that  everybody  could  hear, 
"Good  by,  mother  dear,"  adding,  in  a 
lower  tone  to  old  Blatchford,  "You  will 
look  after  my  mother,  sir,  till  I  get  back. ' ' 
And  old  Blatchford,  still  perspiring  and  still 
very  ill  at  ease,  had  promised  with  the  first 
evidence  of  heartiness  he  had  shown  during 
the  evening,  while  all  the  bride's  attendants 
124 


Little  Miss  Dee 


and  the  visiting  young  women  murmured, 
"How  dear/'  and  the  elderly  ladies  fanned 
their  approval.  But  Luella  looked  bored, 
as  became  a  self-possessed  and  regal  bride. 
The  months  preceding  the  wedding  had 
not  been  specially  joyous  for  Agatha, 
between  whom  and  the  bride-elect  a  pecu 
liarly  hard  and  stony  wall  had  risen.  Miss 
Luella,  apropos  of  nothing  in  particular, 
had  expressed  herself  very  early  in  the 
action  to  the  effect  that  young  people 
should  be  permitted  to  live  their  lives  in 
their  own  way,  and  Agatha,  who  was  by 
no  means  devoid  of  spirit  when  occasion 
demanded,  had  replied  that,  so  far  as  she 
was  individually  concerned,  she  had  no  in 
clination  to  interfere  with  young  people 
who  regarded  her  presence  an  interference. 
Whereupon  the  amiable  Luella  made  no 
pretense  of  concealing  her  satisfaction  at 
this  personal  application,  and  gave  voice  to 
her  approval  of  Miss  Dee's  correct  way  of 
looking  at  things.  Archibald  was  not  slow 
in  appreciating  the  state  of  affairs,  but  with 
the  easy  assurance  of  a  young  man  who 
125 


Little  Miss  Dee 


flatters  himself  that  he  is  an  expert  judge 
of  feminine  nature,  looked  on  tolerantly 
and  assumed  that  the  little  natural  friction 
would  eventually  disappear,  and  that  the 
sweet  tolerance  of  his  intended  wife's 
nature  would  be  sure  to  assert  itself.  It 
was  only  a  few  nights  before  the  wedding 
that,  with  considerable  clearing  of  the  throat 
and  preliminary  exhibitions  of  affection,  he 
encouraged  himself  to  bring  up  the  subject 
of  future  relations,  a  topic  which  Agatha 
had  scrupulously  refrained  from  mentioning. 

"Of  course,  my  dear  little  mother/'  he 
began,  and  he  spoke  with  not  a  little  tender 
ness,  "it  is  better  for  a  while  at  least  that 
Luella  and  I  should  be  left  to  ourselves. 
Aside  from  the  wisdom  of  such  a  step  as  a 
general  principle,  you  understand,  and  you 
must  have  seen,  that  Luella  is  different 
from  a  majority  of  young  women  we 
know. ' ' 

"I  am  afraid  she  is,  Archie,  at  least 
from  young  women  I  know, ' '  said  Agatha, 
with  a  slight  undercurrent  of  bitterness. 

"Still,"  he  went  on,  not  noting  the  trace 
126 


Little  Miss  Dee 


of  sarcasm,  "it  will  be  very  hard  for  me  to 
leave  you  alone  in  this  boarding-house.'* 

"Don't  think  of  that,  my  dear.  I  am 
quite  well  accustomed  to  solitude. ' '  And 
then  fearing  that  she  might  have  wounded 
his  feelings,  she  said,  hastily,  "I  like  to 
be  alone.  You  know  that  is  why  I  chose 
my  room  on  the  top  floor.  The  one  objec 
tion  to  this  house  is  that  I  have  so  little 
time  to  myself.  It  will  be  a  positive  relief 
to  be  so  situated  for  a  while  that  I  can  feel 
that  I  have  only  my  own  selfish  impulses 
to  consult. ' ' 

The  astute  Archibald  brightened  at  this. 
"I  am  glad  you  feel  that  way,"  he  said, 
"for  it  makes  it  so  much  easier  for  me. 
And  it  will  be  only  for  a  short  time  at  the 
most.  It  has  been  my  fondest  wish  to 
provide  a  home  where  you  can  live  and  be 
happy  with  Luella  and  me. ' ' 

Little  Miss  Dee  went  over  to  the  chair 
where  he  was  sitting,  and  put  her  arm 
gently  around  his  neck,  and  smoothed  his 
hair,  and  if  he  had  looked  he  would  have 
seen  tears  in  those  dark  eyes.  But  he  was 
127 


Little  Miss  Dee 


remembering  that  he  was  already  fifteen 
minutes  late,  and  that  Luella  never  for 
gave  tardiness  in  the  concerns  of  love. 
More  than  this,  tears  always  affected  him 
unpleasantly,  so  it  was  wisely  ordained  that 
he  should  not  see  them.  A  young  man 
who  has  reached  the  ripe  'age  of  thirty 
argues  that  women  are  most  unreasonable 
in  the  exhibition  of  their  emotions,  and  in 
this  belief  Archibald  had  been  strenuously 
uphekT  by  Luella,  who  was  apparently  a 
young  woman  of  no  emotions  whatever. 
In  consequence  of  his  preoccupation 
Agatha  had  plenty  of  time  to  master  her 
grief,  which  she  really  believed  to  be  selfish 
and  unworthy. 

"It  seems  to  me,  Archie,"  she  said,  at 
last,  "that  we  shall  be  much  happier  if  we 
stop  worrying  about  the  future  and  take 
the  present  as  it  comes.  A  man  with  your 
prospects  and  social  connections  cannot 
afford  to  jeopardize  them  by  doing  any 
thing  that  may  make  complications,  and  a 
woman  with  my  desire  to  have  her  own 
way,  and  a  disposition  to  be  dictatorial, 
128 


Little  Miss  Dee 


would  be  wretched  if  she  were  put  in  a 
position  of  inferiority. ' ' 

"O,  come,  now,"  exclaimed  Archie, 
magnanimously,  " really  you  mustn't  talk 
that  way. ' '  And  he  patted  her  affection 
ately  on  the  back,  at  the  same  time  looking 
at  his  watch.  Poor  Agatha,  struggling  to 
believe  that  whatever  is  tends  to  happiness, 
and  that  in  this  bright  old  world  of  ours 
everything  is  fair  and  sweet  except  the  too 
human  emotions  of  one  old  maid's  heart. 
Poor  Archibald,  blind  where  he  should  see, 
and  weak  where  he  should  be  strong,  and 
thinking,  with  the  self-sufficiency  of  youth, 
that  one  generous  impulse  makes  repara 
tion  for  a  legion  of  possible  mistakes.  So 
Archibald  went  off  to  his  bride  and  his  new 
life,  and  Agatha  went  back  to  the  little  room 
in  the  fourth  story,  the  flowers,  the  lake 
view,  and  the  clustering  associations  of  the 
shadowy  past. 

During   the  events   leading   up   to   the 

marriage    of  Archibald,    Herbert  Ainslie 

had  not  forgotten  his  obligations  to  Mrs. 

Braidwood,  and  his  promise  to  renew  his 

129 


Little  Miss  Dee 


acquaintance  with  that  hospitable  house. 
As  with  many  other  gentlemen  well  into 
or  past  middle  life,  Ainslie  had  found  in 
the  society  of  Agatha  Dee  a  pleasant  re 
minder  of  his  early  youth,  which  was  now 
far  enough  back  to  wear  all  the  rose  tinges 
and  some  of  the  glamour  of  a  fairy  land. 
In  this  respect  he  was  not  different  from  a 
majority  of  people  of  sentiment  and  imagi 
nation  who  live  quite  as  much  in  fancy  as 
in  reality.  To  return  to  his  old  home  was 
out  of  the  question,  for  with  all  his  admira 
tion  of  the  past  he  was  sufficiently  sane  to 
realize  that  imagination  is  much  safer  than 
a  cold  awakening,  so  he  lived  on  in  the  city 
content  to  believe  his  boyhood  life  as  he 
pictured  it,  and  asking  nothing  more  than 
such  agreeable  reminiscences  as  humored 
his  fancy.  These  reminiscences  Agatha 
was  abundantly  able  to  supply,  inasmuch 
as  she  was  largely  a  part  of  them,  and  as 
she  was  sympathetically  in  touch  with  the 
past,  while  lacking  perhaps  the  man's  ex 
uberance  of  illusion,  it  was  not  strange 
that  their  united  efforts  made  a  heaven  of 
130 


Little  Miss  Dee 


their  old  home  which  the  active  residents 
would  have  failed  to  recognize. 

Vanity  was  no  more  a  part  of  Agatha's 
nature  than  properly  and  justly  belongs  to 
woman,  but  if  she  chose  to  array  herself 
with  a  little  more  care  when  her  former 
lover  called,  it  is  fair  to  presume  that  it 
would  be  not  the  less  pleasing  to  the  casual 
spectator.  Her  ideas  of  dress,  based  on 
primitive  and  old-fashioned  styles,  with  a 
wonderful  conjunction  of  modern  modes, 
were  rather  bewildering,  and  they  served 
to  emphasize  the  peculiarities  and  eccen 
tricities  of  the  Dee  family  nature,  which 
were  growing  more  pronounced  with  the 
years.  It  might  have  been  said  of  her 
when  she  was  fairly  decked  out  that  she 
resembled  nothing  so  much  as  an  old- 
fashioned  flower  garden,  for  she  rioted  in 
color,  and  often  with  a  disregard  of  the 
harmonies.  Much  of  this,  however,  was 
premeditated,  for  she  had  distinct  views  of 
the  specific  effects  of  shades,  and  maintained 
that  a  little  red  or  scarlet  worn  at  the  throat 
promoted  cheerfulness  and  optimism,  and 


Little  Miss  Dee 


overcame  the  disastrous  influence  of  the 
somber  body  of  attire.  For  Ainslie's 
benefit — though  it  is  possible  that  the 
attention  was  lost  on  him  as  a  specific  con 
cession — she  often  wore  her  antique  orna 
ments,  the  high  comb  she  had  been  so 
proud  of  in  her  girlhood,  the  old  cameo 
brooch  he  had  admired  in  the  past  so  pre 
cious  to  them  both,  the  queer  little 
amethyst  ring  he  had  presented  to  her  on 
her  seventeenth  birthday  anniversary  with 
the  guarded  consent  of  the  elder  members 
of  her  family.  It  is  not  presumed  that 
there  was  any  subtle  or  coy  design  in  this 
presentation  of  bygone  sumptuousness,  or 
that  the  ring  was  displayed  with  any  signifi 
cant  purpose  beyond  the  amiable  intention 
suggested;  it  was  enough  for  Agatha  that 
she  was  temporarily  living  in  the  past  and 
giving  to  her  companion  the  full  enjoyment 
of  his  powers  of  imagination.  And  when 
she  appeared  in  Mrs.  Braidwood's  parlor 
on  the  occasion  of  Mr.  Ainslie's  visits,  now 
becoming  more  frequent,  it  seemed  to 
those  who  passed  in  and  out  that  a  last  cen- 
132 


Little  Miss  Dee 


tury  spirit  might  have  come  back  to  earth 
to  take  note  of  modem  desecration,  so 
erroneously  called  progress. 

Those  of  her  own  sex  who  were  near  to 
Agatha  at  this  period  ventured  the  sug 
gestion  that  her  habits  of  mind  were  rapidly 
taking  the  form  of  eccentricity.  Miss 
Parsons,  who  was  not  entirely  devoid  of 
mental  oddity,  recalled  the  fact  that  the 
members  of  the  Dee  family  had  never  been 
quite  balanced  in  the  late  years  of  their 
lives,  that  Agatha's  mother  was  always  a 
little  queer,  and  that  her  father  was  erratic 
and  whimsical  to  an  unusual  degree. 
These  feminine  remarks  were  made  in  the 
kindest  and  most  tolerant  spirit,  and  the 
ladies  would  have  been  truly  grieved  had 
any  wrong  or  too  serious  construction  been 
placed  thereon.  To  a  less  close  observer 
it  would  have  appeared  that  Agatha  merely 
exercised  the  privilege  of  a  maiden  lady  to 
be  a  little  out  of  the  ordinary,  and  that  the 
eccentricities  as  they  developed,  added 
piquancy  to  a  character  already  interesting. 

Whatever  form  this  eccentricity  might 


Little  Miss  Dee 


have  taken  it  did  not  manifest  itself  un 
pleasantly  to  Herbert  Ainslie,  who  sought 
the  society  of  Agatha  as  often  as  was  con 
sistent  with  the  position  of  an  old  friend 
and  a  man  well  along  in  widowerhood. 
The  frequency  of  these  visits,  with  their 
possible  significance,  was  not  lost  on  Miss 
Parsons,  who  despite  her  generally  tearful 
and  pessimistic  condition,  was  keenly  sen 
sible  of  an  affair  of  sentiment,  as  every 
woman  should  be.  "It  is  not  my  province 
to  meddle  with  other  people's  business, 
Agatha  Dee, ' '  she  remarked  one  evening 
at  the  customary  private  gathering  before 
bedtime,  "and  I  don't  pretend  to  be  a 
profound  student  of  human  nature,  but  it 
does  seem  to  me  that  Mr.  Ainslie  is  coming 
here  a  good  deal  oftener  than  is  warranted 
by  a  mere  old-time  acquaintance. f ' 

Agatha's  eyes  opened  in  astonishment. 
"Do  you  really  think  so?"  she  inquired, 
and  showed  that  she  was  much  perturbed 
by  the  information.  ' '  Do  you  think  people 
are  talking?" 

"Well,  as  to  that,"  replied  the  cautious 
134 


Little  Miss  Dee 


Sarah,  "I  can't  say.  They  may  be,  and 
then  again  they  may  not  be.  There's  no 
great,  harm  done  if  they  are,  always  pro 
vided,  of  course,  that  there  is  real  solid 
foundation  for  the  talk.  But  I  must 
admit,  Agatha  Dee,  that  I  am  terribly 
afraid  of  these  middle-aged  men;  they  are 
unscrupulous  and  inclined  to  be  flirts. ' ' 

"Mr.  Ainslie  is  not  unscrupulous,"  said 
Agatha,  decisively,  "and  he's  not  a  flirt. 
Even  if  he  were  it  would  not  affect  me.  I 
have  known  him  for  forty  years. ' ' 

"Which  proves  nothing,"  answered 
Miss  Parsons,  adding,  reminiscently,  "I 
knew  a  man  back  East  whom  everybody  had 
known  for  fifty  years.  He  was  a  pillar  in 
the  church,  and  was  so  respected  that  we 
all  looked  for  him  to  vanish  like  Enoch. 
And  he  did  vanish  finally,  for  one  day — he 
was  then  sixty  years  old — he  went  off  with 
a  young  girl  just  out  of  her  teens,  and  the 
next  thing  we  heard  of  him  he  was  down  in 
Hartford  getting  married." 

"The  story  is  interesting,"  admitted 
Agatha,  "but  I  cannot  agree  that  it  is 


Little  Miss  Dee 


criminal,  and  I  certainly  cannot  understand 
what  it  has  to  do  with  me.  Mr.  Ainslie  is 
not  sixty,  and  I  have  been  out  of  my  teens 
a  long  time.  We  are  not  in  love  with  each 
other,  and  we  have  no  intention  of  getting 
married  in  Hartford  or  anywhere  else." 

"I  didn't  say  that  the  cases  were  exactly 
parallel,"  explained  Miss  Parsons,  "I 
merely  told  the  story  to~  prove  that  you 
never  can  tell  what  is  in  a  man's  mind  or 
what  moment  he  is  going  to  do  something 
outrageous. ' ' 

" Which  may  mean,"  said  Agatha, 
smilingly,  "that,  being  a  man,  Mr.  Ainslie 
is  necessarily  plotting  something  out 
rageous,  and  that  while  he  may  seemingly 
come  to  this  house  to  talk  over  old  times 
with  me,  or  enjoy  the  society  of  older 
ladies,  he  is  secretly  planning  to  elope  with 
Mrs.  Braidwood's  youngest  daughter." 

Miss  Parsons  shrugged  her  shoulders. 
"It  may  be.  As  strange  things  have  hap 
pened,  and  men  are  men. ' ' 

"Well,"  went  on  Agatha,  with  a  smile, 
"I  may  as  well  tell  you,  Sarah,  that  when 
136 


Little  Miss  Dee 


this  happens  there  will  be  no  opposition 
from  me.  I  shall  not  stand  in  the  young 
lady's  way." 

"Do  I  understand  you  to  say,  Agatha 
Dee,"  asked  Miss  Parsons,  rather  more 
eagerly  than  cautiously,  "that  you  do  not 
care  anything  for  Mr.  Ainslie,  and  that 
you  would  not  marry  him?" 

' '  How  do  I  know  what  you  understand  ? ' ' 
retorted  Agatha,  still  smiling.  "But  as 
Mr.  Ainslie  has  not  asked  me  to  marry 
him,  and  apparently  has  no  such  intention, 
I  cannot  think  we  are  putting  in  our  time 
profitably  discussing  what  I  might  or  might 
not  do." 

"Marriage  is  a  very  delightful  state 
under  proper  conditions,"  remarked  Miss 
Parsons,  meditatively. 

"We  need  not  discuss  it  as  a  matter  of 
propriety,  Sarah, "  replied  Agatha.  "Per 
sonally  it  does  not  interest  me  one  way  or 
the  other.  I  am  very  well  satisfied  with 
my  lot  as  I  find  it,  and  I  hope  you  are. ' ' 

Miss  Parsons  gave  her  friend  a  melan 
choly  and  reproachful  glance.  "Have  I 
i37 


Little  Miss  Dee 


was  becoming  in  a  woman  of  fixed  purpose 
and  well-grounded  principles.  As  for  Mr. 
Ainslie  himself,  he  spoke,  when  occasion 
demanded,  with  the  frankness  of  a  man 
who  had  nothing  to  conceal  and  no  object 
to  gain.  It  is  probable  that  in  his  first 
interview  with  Agatha  he  was  stirred  by 
faint  memories  and  interested  in  the  revival 
of  the  past,  while  the  sentimentalism,  which 
was  so  much  a  part  of  his  nature,  served, 
as  time  went  on,  to  invest  his  old  sweet 
heart  with  attributes  not  commonly  found 
in  mortal  circles.  All  of  which,  however, 
was  a  steady  and  decorous  development. 

Archibald  and  his  wife  had  returned,  and 
had  set  up  an  establishment  comformable 
to  Mrs.  Dee's  social  position  and  obliga 
tions  to  the  higher  family  life.  This  estab 
lishment  Agatha  did  not  frequent  more 
persistently  than  her  sense  of  propriety 
dictated,  for  there  was  something  in 
Luella's  attitude  which  gave  her  home  the 
impression  of  a  private  park  with  "No 
Trespassing"  and  "Keep  Off  the  Grass" 
signs  in  abundance.  Archibald  had  at- 
140 


Little  Miss  Dee 


tempted,  good  naturedly,  to  bring  about  a 
happy  family  feeling,  and  had  even  sug 
gested  somewhat  faintly  that  decency  de 
manded  that  his  mother  should  live  with 
him.  To  this  both  ladies  had  demurred, 
Luella  on  the  high  scriptural  ground  that 
a  man  should  forsake  all  and  cleave  unto 
his  wife,  while  Agatha  asserted  her  inde 
pendence  by  declaring  that  she  was  now  at 
a  time  of  life  when  she  must  have  comfort 
and  peace,  such  as  she  could  always  enjoy 
in  the  Braidwood  top  story.  And  Archi 
bald,  who  was  never  a  forceful  character 
in  an  encounter  with  the  feminine  will, 
meekly  subsided  and  went  off  to  his  regu 
lar  pursuits,  assured  that  he  had  done  all 
that  lay  in  man's  power.  So  Little  Miss 
Dee  was  left  to  fight  out  the  battle  of  life 
as  her  spirit  and  her  now  reduced  income 
might  permit. 

The  conversation  with  Miss  Parsons,  and 
the  suggestion  of  the  interpretation  that 
might  be  put  on  the  frequency  of  the  visits 
from  Mr.  Ainslie,  had  excited  Agatha's 
alarm.  In  many  ways  she  was  wholly 
141 


Little  Miss  Dee 


unconventional,  despising  the  small  tittle 
tattle  of  life  and  the  absurd  restrictions  of 
a  suspicious  and  evil-minded  community; 
but  with  a  sort  of  maidenly  reserve  she 
shrank  from  anything  that  could  connect  her 
name  with  that  of  a  man.  She  reflected 
with  much  pleasure  that  so  far  as  her  con 
duct  went  it  had  been  free  from  all  offence. 
She  had  received  an  old  friend  openly  and 
with  no  affectation  of  coquetry,  and  on  one 
or  two  occasions  only  had  accompanied 
him  to  the  park  and  the  garden,  where  they 
had  met  after  their  years  of  separation. 
She  had  customarily  addressed  him  as 
"Mr.  Ainslie, "  very  rarely  lapsing  into 
the  more  familiar  salutation  "Herbert/* 
as  might  have  been  justifiable  in  consider 
ation  of  all  the  circumstances,  and  only 
once,  and  then  in  a  moment  of  extreme 
jocularity,  had  she  ventured  to  call  him  by 
his  old  childhood  name,  ' '  Bertie. ' '  Surely 
she  had  been  discreet  in  every  possible  way, 
as  a  maiden  in  her  position  should  be,  and 
had  done  nothing  at  variance  with  the 
strictest  laws  of  spinsterhood. 
142 


Little  Miss  Dee 


But  with  all  her  care  and  forethought, 
Miss  Parsons  had  made  it  perfectly  clear 
that  there  was  danger  in  the  air,  that  the 
tongues  of  people  were  wagging,  or  would 
soon  wag,  which  was  much  the  same  thing, 
and  that  she  was,  or  soon  would  be,  an 
object  of  suspicion  and  public  gossip. 
What  would  Archibald  say  when  he  heard 
that  his  little  mother  was  pursuing  a  line 
of  conduct  that  amounted  to  a  flirtation? 
What  would  the  cold  and  austere  Luella 
think  when  the  scandal  reached  her  ears? 
What  would  be  the  effect  on  both  if  soci 
ety  took  up  the  subject  and  discussed  it? 
For  did  she  not  know  that  society  is 
always  discussing  such  subjects?  How 
could  she  hope  to  prove  her  innocence  by 
a  simple  declaration  of  denial,  and  main 
tain  her  right  to  remain  a  member  of 
Mrs.  Braidwood's  hitherto  impeccable 
household?  To  what  extent  might  not 
the  evil  shafts  of  slander  reach  if  she 
continued  to  defy  public  opinion  and  allow 
Mr.  Ainslie  to  proceed  unchecked?  The 
maidenly  proprieties  must  not  be  trifled 
H3 


Little  Miss  Dee 


with;  the  worm  of  evil  report  must  be 
killed  at  once. 

Meanwhile,  Herbert  Ainslie,  all  uncon 
scious  of  the  gross  impropriety  of  his  con 
duct,  and  thinking  only  of  the  agreeable 
return  to  the  thoughts  of  his  youth,  dropped 
in  on  Little  Miss  Dee  just  at  the  moment 
when  she  was  engaged  with  the  tremendous 
conflict  with  her  principles.  The  after 
noon  was  perfect,  the  October  air  was 
crisp  enough  to  invite  a  walk,  and  it 
seemed  a  favorable  day  to  take  a  last  look 
at  the  fading  flowers  in  the  old  garden  in 
the  park.  If  Herbert  Ainslie  had  been 
less  of  a  dreamer  and  more  of  an  observ 
ing  man  of  affairs,  he  would  have  seen  a 
fixed  look  of  determination  in  Agatha's 
eyes  and  a  firm  setting  of  the  jaws  as  she 
accepted  his  invitation. 

It  may  have  been  fate  which  induced 
Ainslie,  after  they  had  reached  the  park, 
and  had  slowly  inspected  the  dying  beauties 
of  the  garden,  to  lead  the  way  to  the  rustic 
bench  where  they  had  sat  together  on  the 
memorable  afternoon  of  their  meeting. 
i44 


Little  Miss  Dee 


The  man  had  been  recalling  an  incident  of 
childhood  in  which  both  had  figured,  and 
the  woman  had  listened  silently,  for  the 
voice  of  duty  was  calling  to  her  loudly,  and 
she  was  wondering  how  she  could  with  all 
possible  delicacy  broach  the  disagreeable 
subject.  Failing  to  evolve  any  subtle 
scheme,  she  tried  the  next  best  plan,  and 
reached  the  pith  of  the  matter  without 
ceremony. 

"You  know  how  much  I  despise  gossip, 
Herbert,  and  what  little  attention  I  pay  to 
it,  but  I  have  been  hearing  some  things 
lately  which  lead  me  to  fear  you  are  com 
ing  to  the  house  too  often.  * ' 

Ainslie  looked  at  her  in  astonishment, 
and  then  essayed  a  pleasantry:  "How  can 
that  be,  Agatha?  You  know,  or  should 
know,  that  I  go  to  the  house  exclusively  to 
see  you,  and  I  cannot  do  that  too  often. ' ' 

She  seized  the  opportunity  presented. 
"That  is  it  exactly.  Now,  if  you  were  a 
little  more  general  in  your  attentions  it 
might  be  different;  but  as  it  is,  we  are  ex 
citing  comment. ' ' 


Little  Miss  Dee 


A  trace  of  a  smile  passed  over  Ainslie's 
face,  but  he  replied  with  all  seriousness, 
"Really,  Agatha,  I  am  the  last  person  in 
the  world  who  wishes  to  excite  comment  of 
any  kind,  yet  I  cannot  see  how  the  open 
and  frank  intercourse  of  two  lifelong 
friends  is  going  to  disturb  the  public." 
He  looked  at  her  earnestly.  "I  hope  this 
is  not  your  delicate  way  of  telling  me  that 
my  society  is  not  agreeable?" 

Agatha  was  shocked  by  the  construction. 
"You  know  better  than  that,  Herbert; 
you  know  that  I  am  always  glad  to  see 
you,  and  that  we  are,  as  you  say,  fast  and 
lifelong  friends.  I  am  thinking  only  of 
the  compromising  effect  too  frequent  calls 
may  have. ' ' 

For  a  full  minute  Ainslie  was  silent. 
"I  am  trying  to  think,"  he  said  at  last, 
"what  we  can  do  to  counteract  this  com 
promising  effect  and  at  the  same  time  per 
mit  ourselves  to  enjoy  life  in  our  simple, 
rational  way.  One  plan  happily  presents 
itself.  Agatha,  will  you  be  my  wife?" 

Little  Miss  Dee  turned  abruptly  and 
146 


Little  Miss  Dee 


looked  him  squarely  in  the  face.  On  her 
own  countenance  was  an  expression  of 
astonishment  hardly  short  of  petrification. 
He  did  not  wait  for  her  to  speak,  but  went 
on  deliberately: 

"What  I  have  just  said  is  merely  what 
I  have  intended  to  say  for  some  time,  and 
what  I  have  neglected  to  say  simply  be 
cause  I  did  not  realize  that  the  time  had 
arrived.  It  is  no  sudden  impulse,  and  it 
comes  from  no  emotion  born  in  an  hour  or 
a  day.  And  so  I  say  again,  will  you  be 
my  wife?" 

Another  minute  passed,  and  not  a  word 
came  from  the  woman  sitting  motionless  at 
his  side.  He  went  on  as  quietly  and  delib 
erately  as  before: 

"We  were  lovers,  Agatha,  in  the  spring 
time  of  life,  that  happy  springtime  we  have 
so  often  praised.  We  were  separated  and 
our  summer  came  and  went  while  we  were 
far  apart.  And  now  in  our  autumn  we  are 
brought  providentially  together.  You  see 
the  providence,  do  you  not?" 

When  she  still  refused  to  speak  he  said: 
147 


Little  Miss  Dee 


"I  am  all  alone  in  the  world,  Agatha,  and 
so  are  you.  Your  charge  has  left  you, 
and  there  is  nobody  now  to  whom  you  can 
so  naturally  turn  as  to  me.  Don't  you 
remember,  dear,  when  we  were  young  how 
I  used  to  say  that  it  was  ordained  that  we 
should  be  mated,  and  how  often  that 
thought  has  come  to  me,  even  when  I  was 
happy  with  my  wife.  Don't  start,  Agatha; 
it  is  with  no  disloyalty  to  her  that  I  say  it, 
for  I  could  not  divest  myself  of  the  idea 
that  what  my  youth  had  decreed  time  must 
surely  bring  about." 

He  paused,  more  as  if  in  thought  than 
waiting  for  her  to  reply.  And  then  he 
pointed  to  a  fading  rose  growing  apart  in  a 
clump  of  decaying  vegetation.  "See  that 
rose,  -Agatha;  it  is  dying,  alone  and  neg 
lected,  just  as  you  and  I  must  die  if  we 
follow  out  our  life  as  it  runs  at  present. 
Think  of  it,  Agatha,  the  pity  of  it!  To 
die,  alone  and  forgotten." 

Little  Miss  Dee  shuddered,  and  then  she 
turned  again  and  looked  at  her  girlhood 
lover  with  eyes  that  were  blurred  with 
148 


Little  Miss  Dee 


tears.  She  put  her  hand  on  his,  and  said, 
in  a  tone  that  was  barely  audible:  ''Don't 
speak  of  this,  Herbert.  It  is  impossible; 
it  is  unnecessary — and  O,  so  cruel." 

"I  cannot  think  it  is  cruel,  Agatha,"  he 
answered,  gently,  "and  why  should  we  say 
that  it  is  impossible?  Put  yourself  in  my 
place  as  I  have  tried  to  put  myself  in 
yours.  My  life  is  comfortable  enough,  so 
far  as  material  matters  go,  for  happily  I  am 
able  to  provide  for  needs  greater  than  my 
tastes  require,  but  this  does  not  take  into 
account  the  desolation  of  my  mind,  the 
constant  knowledge  that  I  am  living  in 
loneliness.  Your  home  is  a  boarding- 
house,  where,  as  you  have  just  confessed, 
you  are  subjected  to  every  restriction  a 
petty  world  can  suggest.  Where,  then,  is 
the  impossibility?" 

His  pleading  had  given  Agatha  time  to 
regain  a  measure  of  composure,  and  while 
he  had  been  speaking  her  mind  had  traveled 
back  over  the  waste  of  years  since  he  had 
talked  with  her  so  tenderly  in  that  spring 
time  he  remembered.  But  there  was  no 
149 


Little  Miss  Dee 


"I  am  all  alone  in  the  world,  Agatha,  and 
so  are  you.  Your  charge  has  left  you, 
and  there  is  nobody  now  to  whom  you  can 
so  naturally  turn  as  to  me.  Don't  you 
remember,  dear,  when  we  were  young  how 
I  used  to  say  that  it  was  ordained  that  we 
should  be  mated,  and  how  often  that 
thought  has  come  to  me,  even  when  I  was 
happy  with  my  wife.  Don't  start,  Agatha; 
it  is  with  no  disloyalty  to  her  that  I  say  it, 
for  I  could  not  divest  myself  of  the  idea 
that  what  my  youth  had  decreed  time  must 
surely  bring  about." 

He  paused,  more  as  if  in  thought  than 
waiting  for  her  to  reply.  And  then  he 
pointed  to  a  fading  rose  growing  apart  in  a 
clump  of  decaying  vegetation.  "See  that 
rose,  ^Agatha;  it  is  dying,  alone  and  neg 
lected,  just  as  you  and  I  must  die  if  we 
follow  out  our  life  as  it  runs  at  present. 
Think  of  it,  Agatha,  the  pity  of  it!  To 
die,  alone  and  forgotten." 

Little  Miss  Dee  shuddered,  and  then  she 
turned  again  and  looked  at   her  girlhood 
lover   with    eyes   that   were   blurred  with 
148 


Little  Miss  Dee 


tears.  She  put  her  hand  on  his,  and  said, 
in  a  tone  that  was  barely  audible:  " Don't 
speak  of  this,  Herbert.  It  is  impossible; 
it  is  unnecessary — and  O,  so  cruel.'* 

"I  cannot  think  it  is  cruel,  Agatha,"  he 
answered,  gently,  "and  why  should  we  say 
that  it  is  impossible?  Put  yourself  in  my 
place  as  I  have  tried  to  put  myself  in 
yours.  My  life  is  comfortable  enough,  so 
far  as  material  matters  go,  for  happily  I  am 
able  to  provide  for  needs  greater  than  my 
tastes  require,  but  this  does  not  take  into 
account  the  desolation  of  my  mind,  the 
constant  knowledge  that  I  am  living  in 
loneliness.  Your  home  is  a  boarding- 
house,  where,  as  you  have  just  confessed, 
you  are  subjected  to  every  restriction  a 
petty  world  can  suggest.  Where,  then,  is 
the  impossibility?" 

His  pleading  had  given  Agatha  time  to 
regain  a  measure  of  composure,  and  while 
he  had  been  speaking  her  mind  had  traveled 
back  over  the  waste  of  years  since  he  had 
talked  with  her  so  tenderly  in  that  spring 
time  he  remembered.  But  there  was  no 
149 


Little  Miss  Dee 


emotion  of  resentment  or  grief  for  that  lost 
day;  they  might  have  been  lovers  still  so 
far  as  was  indicated  by  the  softness  of  her 
manner  and  the  calmness  of  her  voice. 

"You  do  not  understand,  Herbert.  It 
is  not  of  these  material  comforts  I  am 
thinking,  and  I  do  not  deny  that  I  often 
fight  against  a  sense  of  loneliness  and  de 
pression  such  as  you  have  described.  But 
it  is  too  late  to  say  that  we  were  ordained 
for  each  other.  I  cannot  find  that  convic 
tion  in  my  heart.  Perhaps  I  thought  so 
once,  but  Gertrude  came  between  us  and  I 
knew  I  was  mistaken. ' ' 

The  man  flushed  and  bent  his  head. 
She  touched  his  arm  caressingly,  as  she 
said,  "Do  not  misunderstand  me.  It  was 
right  that  it  should  be  so.  What  had  been 
ordained  came  to  pass,  and  in  all  those 
previous  years  we  were  mistaken.  We 
have  nothing  to  reproach  ourselves  for, 
since  time  alone  could  prove  to  us  that  it 
had  been  otherwise  decreed. ' ' 

Ainslie  was  bewildered.  "Even  sup 
posing  we  were  wrong  in  one  instance, 
150 


Little  Miss  Dee 


though  unconsciously  so,  it  does  not  seem 
to  follow  that  we  could  not  be  right  in  the 
other. " 

It  was  Agatha's  turn  to  be  surprised. 
With  her  fixed  principles  she  could  not 
argue  from  the  man's  standpoint  or  com 
prehend  his  failure  to  grasp  her  meaning. 
' '  It  would  be  wrong  now, ' '  she  went  on, 
" because  what  has  been  ordained  has  come 
to  pass.  Nothing  in  the  present  or  in  the 
future  can  change  what  both  of  us  believe 
now  to  have  been  right. ' ' 

"Then  you  do  not  care  for  me,  or  could 
not  care  for  me  as  you  once  did,  or  as  I 
believed  you  did?" 

"That  is  merely  a  matter  of  sentiment, " 
answered  Agatha,  evasively,  "and  senti 
ment  has  nothing  to  do  with  a  case  which 
is  built  up  on  principle.  You  belong  as 
much  to  Gertrude  now  as  if  she  stood  alive 
before  you.  If  there  is  anything  in  fore- 
ordination,  I  am  sure  that  you  belonged  to 
her  years  before  you  met.  Your  later 
happiness  proved  it,  and  your  own  words 
have  testified  to  it." 


Little  Miss  Dee 


Ainslie  shook  his  head,  not  in  denial  of 
what  she  was  saying,  but  in  confession  of 
his  inability  to  comprehend  it.  A  middle- 
aged  widower  takes  his  defeat  in  the  battles 
of  love  more  philosophically  than  a  younger, 
more  ardent  lover.  His  experience  and 
quicker  consciousness  told  him  that  the 
struggle  had  gone  against  him,  and  he  did 
not  return  to  the  attack.  "I  shall  not  try 
to  answer  your  reasoning,  Agatha,"  he 
said,  a  little  sadly,  "for  I  feel  that  it  would 
be  useless.  We  are  looking  at  the  situ 
ation  from  two  entirely  different  points  of 
view,  and  I  understand  you  well  enough  to 
know  that  you  are  battling  from  a  hard 
principle  rather  than  from  a  more  human 
feeling.  At  least, ' '  and  he  took  her  hand, 
"we  shall  be  as  close  as  your  scruples  and 
our  long  friendship  will  allow.  You  need 
a  friend  such  as  I  hope  to  be  to  you, 
Agatha,  and  I  need  your  comradeship — 
more  now  than  ever. ' ' 

She  smiled  that  radiant  smile  which  a 
woman  of  convictions  can  so  naturally  dis 
pense  when  she  believes  that  she  has  lived 
152 


Little  Miss  Dee 


up  to  a  principle  and  a  sacrifice,  and  she 
said,  quite  forgetting  her  earlier  fears  and 
the  respect  due  to  the  critical  public  in  the 
larger  world  she  walked  in,  "We  never 
could  be  less  than  friends  and  comrades, 
Herbert,  and  perhaps,"  she  added,  softly, 
"that  is  foreordained,  too." 


153 


IF  the  direct  question  had  been  put  to 
Miss  Parsons,  she  would  have  admitted 
that  she  knew  something  was  wrong.  Like 
a  well-trained  and  competent  schoolmistress 
she  was  accustomed  to  consider  things 
logically  and  in  their  natural  order.  She 
arranged  her  premises  carefully  and  from 
them  deduced  the  most  irresistible  con 
clusions.  In  the  present  instance  the  task 
was  not  particularly  difficult.  A  man  and 
a  woman  had  left  the  house  apparently  in 
the  best  of  spirits  and  on  the  most  amiable 
terms.  They  had  returned  silent,  and  in 
the  case  of  one  at  least,  depressed.  The 
man  had  gone  away  with  nothing  of  that 
good-humored  banter  so  characteristic  of 
him,  and  later  the  woman  had  appeared 
at  dinner  with  evidences  of  repentant 
tears.  Of  such  phenomena  there  could 
be  only  one  explanation,  and  Miss  Parsons 
was  the  magician  to  interpret  it.  She 
knew  her  duty,  and  would  not  shrink 
'54 


Little  Miss  Dee 


from  it.  Courageous  and  loyal  Miss  Par 
sons! 

Allowing  a  reasonable  time  for  such 
duties  as  might  take  up  the  earlier  part  of 
the  evening,  Miss  Parsons  ascended  to  the 
fourth  story  and  tapped  at  Agatha's  door. 
Somewhat  to  her  surprise  she  found  the 
sufferer  calmly  reading,  a  fact  which  to 
Miss  Parsons  was  merely  one  of  the  many 
conspicuous  examples  of  the  incompre 
hensibility  of  her  own  sex.  But  though 
surprised  she  was  not  intimidated  or  im 
peded  in  the  discharge  of  her  assumed 
obligation.  She  had  a  directness  of  speech 
which  she  had  inherited  from  a  long  line  of 
plain-spoken  New  Englanders,  and  she 
wasted  no  time  in  skirmishing. 

" Agatha  Dee,"  she  began,  "I  feared 
you  were  in  trouble,  and  I  came  up  to  see 
if  I  could  do  anything  for  you. ' ' 

If  Agatha  was  in  trouble  she  dissembled 
bravely.  She  even  looked  amazed  at  the 
intimation.  "Why  do  you  think  so?"  she 
asked.  "On  general  principles?" 

Miss  Parsons  was  not  to  be  put  off  by 
•  '55 


Little  Miss  Dee 


what  she  considered  palpably  forced  jocu 
larity.  ' '  My  conscience  has  been  troubling 
me  ever  since  we  had  that  conversation 
about  Mr.  Ainslie  and  his  frequent  calls  at 
the  house." 

"Then  it  is  you  who  are  in  trouble,  not 
I,"  said  Agatha,  "and  it  was  my  duty  to 
comfort  you.  My  dear  Sarah,  I've  always 
heard  about  that  New  England  conscience, 
with  its  terribly  pricking  ways,  and  what 
an  annoying  and  inconvenient  thing  it  is, 
and  I  must  assure  you  that  this  time  it  has 
misled  you.  You  have  not  the  slightest 
reason  to  reproach  yourself. ' ' 

"Agatha  Dee" — and  this  with  severity 
— "you  know  you  are  deceiving  me.  You 
know  that  you  and  Mr.  Ainslie  have  had 
unpleasant  words.  I  read  it  in  your  face 
the  minute  I  saw  you  this  evening.  * ' 

Agatha  thought  a  moment  before  she 
answered.  "I  may  as  well  tell  you 
frankly,  Sarah  Parsons,  since  you  are  so 
observing,  that  I  did  have  a  conversation 
with  Mr.  Ainslie  this  afternoon,  but  you 
are  wrong  in  the  suspicion  that  there  was 
156 


Little  Miss  Dee 


any  unpleasantness.  I  told  him,  how 
ever,  what  you  were  kind  enough  to  tell 
me,  that  he  has  been  coming  here  a  little 
too  frequently. ' ' 

"Was  that  all?" 

"Well,  practically  all." 

"And  he  agreed  with  you?" 

"O,  as  to  that,  I  can't  exactly  say  that 
he  entirely  agreed  with  me,  but  it  came  to 
the  same  thing." 

"And  he's  not  coming  here  again,  and 
you  are  not  going  to  see  him  any  more, 
and  everything  is  off?" 

"My  dear  Sarah,"  exclaimed  Agatha, 
"how  many  questions  you  have  put.  Do 
you  expect  me  to  answer  them  all  at 
once?" 

Miss  Parsons  was  plainly  agitated. 
"We  have  been  friends,  Agatha  Dee,  for 
many  years,  and  I  have  always  tried  to  do 
my  duty  to  you  as  I  have  seen  it.  If  I 
have  failed  it  was  because  I  was  too  zeal 
ous  in  my  friendship.  Agatha,  I  am 
afraid  we  have  made  a  terrible  mistake — a 
mistake  which  I  did  not  realize  at  the  time. 
157 


Little  Miss  Dee 


You  should  not  have  listened  to  me  when 
I  told  you  to  reject  Mr.  Ainslie. ' ' 

The  astonishment  on  Agatha's  face  was 
now  no  pretense.  "What  are  you  talking 
about,  Sarah  Parsons?  You  did  not  tell 
me  to  reject  Mr.  Ainslie,  and  even  if  you 
had  told  me  I  do  not  think  it  would  have 
had  any  great  effect.  You  had  no  reason 
to  suspect  that  such  advice  was  necessary. 
Why  do  you  say  it  now?" 

"Because  I  wish  to  undo  what  I  have 
done  before  it  is  too  late.  Because  I  wish 
to  save  you  from  the  folly  I  once  commit 
ted.  I  could  not  be  your  friend  if  I  failed 
in  this — much  less  now  since  I  am  so 
largely  responsible. ' ' 

"But  I  tell  you,  Sarah,  that  you  are 
responsible  for  nothing — at  least  for  noth 
ing  that  is  not  wholly  to  your  credit  and  for 
my  advantage.  I  do  wish  we  could  drop 
this  subject.  I  am  getting  positively 
melancholy." 

Miss  Parsons  wiped  away  a  few  tears, 
and  it  seemed  to  Agatha  that  they  were 
more  significant  drops  than  she  usually 
158 


Little  Miss  Dee 


allowed  to  fall.  Then  she  rose  and  hur 
riedly  left  the  room,  and  while  Agatha  was 
struggling  with  amazement  at  this  new 
outburst,  she  returned,  bringing  a  small 
packet  of  letters  carefully  tied  up  with  a 
faded  yellow  ribbon.  Agatha  looked  at 
the  packet  and  at  her  friend,  curiously  at 
the  one,  sympathetically  at  the  other,  for 
she  felt  that  some  ghost  was  coming  from 
that  little  bundle  of  paper.  Miss  Parsons 
again  wiped  her  eyes,  carefully  untied  the 
ribbon  which  bound  the  packet,  and  took 
from  the  center  of  the  letters  one  which 
seemed  to  be  different  from  the  rest. 
Then  she  said:  "Here,  Agatha  Dee,  is 
what  you  have  mistaken  for  a  New  Eng 
land  conscience.  It  is  the  memory  of  this 
that  has  given  me  the  horror  of  fearing  that 
you  may  suffer  as  I  have  suffered. '  *  She 
took  from  the  envelope  the  dry  skeleton  of 
a  geranium  leaf,  so  frail  that  a  breath  of 
wind  might  have  crumbled  it,  and  there 
was  a  tenderer  look  in  her  eyes  as  she 
looked  at  it.  "The  story  of  this  leaf/' 
she  went  on,  "is  a  story  I  have  never  told 
159 


Little  Miss  Dee 


to  anybody  until  this  moment.  I  tell  it 
now  only  because  I  hope  it  may  guide  you 
safely." 

If  any  of  Miss  Parsons 's  feminine  friends 
other  than  Agatha  had  been  favored  with 
this  confidence,  she  would  have  found  it 
difficult  to  resist  the  impulse  to  run  to  the 
head  of  the  stairs  and  cry  out:  "Come  up 
here,  everybody!  Sarah  Parsons  has  had  a 
romance!"  But  there  was  so  much  that 
was  pathetic  in  the  old  maid's  earnestness, 
in  her  struggle  against  an  emotion  awak 
ened  after  years  of  slumber,  that  Agatha 
pitied  her  from  the  bottom  of  her  generous 
heart,  and  involuntarily  made  a  gesture  of 
restraint. 

"Don't,  Sarah,"  she  said,  gently;  "it 
is  sacred  to  you,  and  I  know  it  hurts. ' ' 

"They  say  that  every  woman  has  had 
her  love  dream  at  one  time  or  another, ' ' 
Miss  Parsons  began,  heedless  of  the  re 
monstrance,  "sometimes  only  a  dream 
which  has  not  even  a  leaf  to  recall  it. 
After  all,  my  story  is  hardly  more  than  a 
dream,  and  there  isn't  much  to  tell.  Pos- 
160 


Little  Miss  Dee 


sibly  it  was  because  I  was  so  young  that  I 
have  imagined  it  was  so  cruel.  You  see," 
she  continued,  absently,  forgetting  that  she 
was  at  the  beginning  and  not  the  end  of 
her  story,  "we  had  been  unconfessed  lov 
ers  for  two  years — yes,  I  know  you  are 
thinking  this  could  not  happen  anywhere 
except  New  England — and  that  night  he 
asked  me  to  marry  him.  Perhaps  I  did 
not  then  know  my  own  heart,  or  perhaps  I 
thought  that  coquetry  was  the  surest  way 
of  gaining  happiness,  but  when  we  parted 
I  had  given  him  no  encouragement,  and 
this,  Agatha,  is  the  geranium  leaf  I  held 
in  my  hand. ' ' 

"Geranium?  that  is  for  preference," 
said  Agatha,  softly. 

"So  you  see  it  is  not  much  of  a  story, 
and  I  have  told  it  clumsily,  but  you  know 
what  happened — what  always  happens 
when  honesty  in  love  is  forgotten.  * ' 

"You  did  not  see  him  again?" 

"He  went  away  the  next  day  without  a 
word.     This  is  the  geranium  leaf,  a  poor 
reminder  of  that  evening. ' ' 
161 


Little  Miss  Dee 


"But,"  persisted  Agatha,  "did  you  lose 
sight  of  him  entirely?  Has  he  never 
crossed  your  path  or  in  any  way  entered 
into  your  life?  Is  he  still  living?5* 

"I  do  not  know." 

"Are  you  waiting  for  him?" 

"Perhaps  I  am;  how  can  I  tell.  It  is 
certainly  the  privilege  of  an  old  maid  to 
wait." 

Then  Agatha,  with  pity  looking  out  of 
her  eyes,  said,  with  a  little  quaver  in  her 
voice,  "The  sadness  of  your  life  hangs 
round  a  geranium  leaf,  Sarah,  and  perhaps 
must  linger  there.  Let  me  keep  your 
story  and  your  secret,  but  rest  your  mind 
so  far  as  I  am  concerned.  The  geranium 
leaf  in  my  life  withered  and  perished  many 
years  ago." 


163 


HAD  Herbert  Ainslie  come  from  the 
old  fighting  stock  of  the  Dees,  it  is 
likely  that  he  would  not  have  surrendered 
so  easily,  and  perhaps  he  might  have  car 
ried  his  point,  even  against  so  strong  a 
principle,  for  a  woman  likes  nothing  so 
much  as  opposition  and  a  conquering  spirit 
in  the  affairs  of  love.  But  Ainslie  was  a 
mild  philosopher,  and  not  a  fighter,  and 
once  convinced  that  his  cause  was  hopeless, 
he  resigned  himself  to  the  old  indolent  life 
as  it  came,  content  to  believe  that  every 
thing  is  for  the  best,  and  that  life  is  too 
placid  and  agreeable  to  be  upset  by  persist 
ent  pursuit  of  an  elusive  object.  He  would 
not  concede,  however,  that  the  privileges 
of  comradeship  had  been  forfeited,  and 
now  that  everything  had  been  established 
on  a  satisfactory  basis,  and  the  uncomfort 
able  opposition  of  Miss  Parsons  had  been 
removed,  public  opinion  would  have  been 
greatly  exercised  if  public  opinion  had 
163 


Little  Miss  Dee 


deigned  to  take  the  slightest  notice  of  the 
innocent  wanderings  and  conversations  of 
these  two  reputable  middle-aged  persons. 
Miss  Parsons,  in  fact,  had  been  taken  with 
such  a  revulsion  of  feeling  that  she  pro 
moted  in  every  way  the  agreeable  inter 
course,  and  even  resorted  to  reprehensible 
conspiracies  to  bring  about  a  readjustment 
of  the  relations.  A  woman  who  is  not 
active  either  in  advancing  a  romance  or 
destroying  it  is  devoid  of  the  true  feminine 
impulse. 

Agatha's  man  of  affairs,  whose  duty  it 
was  to  look  after  her  small  interests  and 
send  her  the  little  income  she  derived  from 
her  property,  communicated  to  her  from 
time  to  time  the  unsatisfactory  information 
that  times  were  hard  and  that  she  must 
retrench  as  much  as  possible.  And 
Agatha,  who  had  lived  in  an  atmosphere 
of  retrenchment  until  she  knew  no  other 
condition,  promised  faithfully  to  curtail  her 
expenses,  and  abandon  all  luxuries  that 
might  not  conform  to  the  symmetry  of 
Mrs.  Braidwood's  top  story.  At  regular 
164 


Little  Miss  Dee 


intervals  Archibald  would  appear  on  the 
scene  and  renew  an  expression  of  hope 
that  his  little  mother  might  be  induced  to 
make  his  house  her  home — always  pro 
vided  Luella  could  be  brought  to  an  appre 
ciation  of  the  exigencies  of  the  case.  But 
Luella  was  never  to  be  found  in  that  ap 
preciative  mood,  and  Agatha  would  reply 
kindly,  but  with  an  admixture  of  spirit, 
that  she  was  getting  along  very  comfort 
ably,  that  her  income  was  sufficient  for  her 
needs,  and  that  she  thought  she  could 
worry  along  without  making  any  changes 
just  at  present.  Then  Archibald  would 
hint  that  as  he  was  making  just  a  little 
more  than  his  own  needs  strictly  demanded, 
it  might  be  a  filial  act  to  provide  more 
commodious  quarters  for  the  little  mother 
than  a  small  room  in  the  top  story  of  a 
boarding-house,  and  Agatha  would  answer 
firmly  that  she  could  not  be  happy  any 
where  else,  the  air  was  so  good  and  the 
light  so  perfect.  Whereupon  Archibald, 
a  well-meaning  young  man,  but  singularly 
lacking  in  disputatious  qualities  for  so  ad- 
165 


Little  Miss  Dee 


mirable  a  lawyer,  would  give  up  the  point 
and  take  a  continuance  to  another  day. 

It  had  always  been  an  interesting  devel 
opment^  of  the  nature  of  the  members  of 
the  Dee  family  that  as  they  advanced  in 
years  they  grew  more  respectful  toward 
the  ancient  family  prophecy.  Agatha  was 
no  exception  to  the  rule.  Accustomed  to 
it  from  her  childhood,  she  had  regarded  it 
at  first  with  amused  toleration,  and  then, 
as  she  saw  its  effect  on  her  father,  with  a 
little  vexation.  For  forty  years  she  had 
been  disposed  to  dismiss  it  as  an  idle  super 
stition,  something  that  had  to  be  borne  if 
only  as  a  connecting  link  with  a  long  and 
respectable  ancestry,  but  in  other  respects 
a  fairy  tale  hardly  tolerable  in  the  nursery. 
She  had  told  the  story  to  Archibald  as  her 
father  had  related  it  to  her,  and  she  had 
even,  half- jocularly,  suggested  to  him  the 
possibility  of  vindicating  the  prediction  and 
redeeming  the  family  name,  but  the  sub 
ject  had  not  been  mentioned  by  either  since 
Archibald  had  come  into  full  possession  of 
his  reasoning  faculties. 
1 66 


Little  Miss  Dee 


It  often  happens  that  those  advanced  in 
life,  and  relieved  of  the  cares  and  burdens 
of  the  present,  turn  to  the  past  as  a  source 
of  pleasant  thoughts,  and  it  is  from  them 
that  genealogy  draws  its  greatest  number 
of  disciples.  Exactly  why  a  man  should 
be  specially  interested  in  his  forebears  when 
he  should  be  devoting  his  time  to  his 
descendants  has  never  been  satisfactorily 
explained  by  the  psychologists,  but  the  fact 
remains,  and  is  not  to  be  lightly  put  aside. 
In  the  case  of  Agatha  Dee  there  was  not 
so  much  cause  for  wonder  inasmuch  as  a 
chain  of  circumstances  naturally  directed 
her  attention  to  the  past.  Moreover,  she 
had  plenty  of  time  to  think,  possibly  a  little 
more  than  is  wholesome  for  a  woman  with 
an  active  brain,  and  from  thinking  in  a 
pleasantly  reminiscent  manner  she  fell  to 
meditating  on  the  plausibility  of  the  gypsy 
story,  and  finally  to  believing  that  there 
was  much  more  truth  in  it  than  she  had 
thought  possible.  All  this  her  father  had 
foretold  to  her.  The  virus  was  in  her  system, 
and  the  poison  was  beginning  to  work. 
167 


Little  Miss  Dee 


Herbert  Ainslie  was  perfectly  familiar 
with  the  Dee  prophecy,  having  heard  it 
from  the  old  pensioner  himself,  and  having 
treated  it  with  the  greatest  irreverence 
when  the  old  Major's  back  was  turned.  In 
his  later  years  he  had  mentioned  it  occa 
sionally  to  Agatha,  and  usually  in  a  jocu 
lar  and  even  flippant  tone,  which  at  first 
she  did  not  resent,  but  with  her  change  of 
attitude  there  was  a  corresponding  adroit 
shift  of  his  own;  he  was  quick  enough  to 
see  that  it  was  poor  policy  to  fight  against 
a  family  superstition,  and  he  was  too  ami 
able  and  too  sincerely  attached  to  his  old 
friend  to  sport  with  her  feelings.  Further 
more,  the  prophecy  was  an  inexhaustible 
subject  for  conversation,  and  could  always 
be  introduced  when  other  topics  flagged. 
Like  its  twin,  genealogy,  the  leading  fam 
ily  incident  is  never  out  of  place. 

It  had  come  suddenly  to  Agatha  that  the 
prophecy  was  not  flourishing  as  in  the 
good  old  times.  She  remembered  her 
father's  words,  that  the  credit  of  the  family 
was  now  in  her  keeping,  and  she  recalled 
x68 


Little  Miss  Dee 


her  own  promise  in  behalf  of  Archibald. 
But  Archibald,  content  with  a  wealthy  wife 
and  a  moderate  amount  of  labor  in  his  pro 
fession,  did  not  seem  to  be  in  a  way  to 
perform  any  striking  deed  of  heroism  or  to 
bother  himself  about  it,  and  the  possibili 
ties  of  an  obscure  little  woman,  shut  up  in 
the  top  floor  of  a  boarding-house  were 
certainly  not  dazzling  in  their  brilliancy. 
The  more  Agatha  thought  of  her  failure  to 
meet  the  family  responsibility  the  more 
depressed  she  became,  and  the  more  she 
sought  interpretation  and  advice.  These 
essentials  Herbert  Ainslie  cheerfully  con 
tributed,  and  it  came  to  pass  that  rarely 
did  they  meet  that  they  did  not  refer  in 
one  way  or  another  to  the  chances  of  the 
fulfillment  of  the  prediction,  increasing  or 
decreasing  according  to  the  condition  of 
Agatha's  spirits. 

Herbert  Ainslie,  like  a  true  and  consist 
ent  philosopher,  had  never  returned  in 
delicately  to  the  subject  of  the  decisive 
conversation  in  the  park.  The  result  of 
that  exchange  of  confidences  had  left  no 
169 


Little  Miss  Dee 


bitterness,  but  the  tacit  understanding 
seemed  to  forbid  the  recurrence.  Yet 
Ainslie,  in  common  with  other  philoso 
phers,  could  not  desist  from  discussing 
love  in  the  abstract,  and  in  a  few  months 
he  had  so  far  recovered  his  spirits  and 
cheerfulness  as  to  speak  of  his  own  affairs 
of  the  heart  as  a  good-natured  misunder 
standing  which  was  a  rather  pleasant  mem 
ory.  Miss  Parsons,  notwithstanding  her 
pessimistic  nature,  cherished  agreeable 
hopes  that  her  error,  as  she  persisted  in 
calling  it,  might  be  remedied,  and  while 
she  no  longer  produced  the  geranium  leaf 
in  evidence  as  a  warning  to  coquetry  and 
stubborn  pride,  she  neglected  no  opportu 
nity  of  discoursing  with  considerable  feeling 
on  the  importance  of  thoroughly  under 
standing  the  dictates  of  one's  own  heart 
before  it  is  too  late. 

So,  in  this  friendly  and  not  altogether 
unprofitable  manner,  one  month  succeeded 
another,  and  if  the  sprightliness  of  Mr. 
Ainslie 's  movements  decreased,  if  the 
oddity  of  Miss  Dee's  nature  became  a  little 
170 


Little  Miss  Dee 


more  emphatic,  if  the  amiable  hopes  of 
Miss  Parsons  were  a  trifle  dimmer,  there 
was  at  least  no  change  in  the  friendly  rela 
tions  which  were  still  lost  on  an  unobserv- 
ing  world.  It  had  been  Ainslie's  custom, 
with  that  regularity  which  is  so  fixedly  the 
method  of  elderly  men  of  leisure,  to  put  in 
an  appearance  at  the  Braidwood  house 
Tuesday  and  Thursday  evenings,  with  Sun 
day  afternoon  thrown  in  as  an  auspicious 
day  for  a  circumspect  walk  to  the  park  or 
along  the  lake  shore;  and  as  Mr.  Ainslie 
was  methodical  to  a  fault,  there  was  little 
occasion  to  chide  him  for  failure  to  comply 
with  the  established  custom.  But  one 
Tuesday  in  the  early  spring  Agatha  was 
astonished  and  chagrined  to  note  that  the 
evening  had  slipped  away  without  the  usual 
visitor,  and  this  amazement  was  increased 
to  a  positive  attack  of  nerves  when  Thurs 
day  came  and  went  without  explanation  or 
presence.  Agatha  confided  to  Miss  Par 
sons  that  though  she  was  not  in  the  least 
put  out  or  distressed  by  such  unexpected 
and  extraordinary  treatment,  since  it  was 
171 


Little  Miss  Dee 


Mr.  Ainslie's  privilege  to  come  or  stay 
away  as  he  pleased,  she  did  think  it  rather 
queer  that  so  punctilious  a  gentleman 
should  be  so  lacking  in  observance  of  the 
ordinary  conventions.  And  Miss  Parsons, 
with  her  mind  firmly  fixed  on  the  tragedy 
of  the  geranium  leaf,  held  her  peace  and 
trembled. 

The  following  morning  Agatha  received 
a  note  from  the  offender.  He  expressed 
his  regret  at  his  loss  of  the  two  evenings, 
and  ventured  to  hope  that  his  absence  had 
been  noticed  and  deplored.  The  fact  was 
that  he  had  been  confined  to  the  house  by 
his  doctor's  orders — nothing  more  than  a 
trifling  indisposition  he  believed — and 
would  his  old  friend  do  him  the  kindness 
to  come  and  cheer  him  in  his  loneliness. 
His  old  friend  read  the  letter  with  a  per 
ceptible  flutter.  She  did  not  stop  to  con 
sider  the  proprieties,  as  maidenly  caution 
and  shyness  might  have  suggested;  she  did 
not  even  pause  to  consult  Miss  Parsons  as 
to  the  advisability  of  taking  so  advanced  a 
step.  A  great  fear  came  suddenly  upon 
172 


Little  Miss  Dee 


her;  a  voice  seemed  to  tell  her  that  some 
thing  very  near  and  necessary  was  slipping 
out  of  her  life,  and  that  in  all  the  mysteri 
ous  changes  of  this  strange  world  a  change 
was  coming  to  her  own  little  lot.  While 
this  fear  was  still  insistent  she  hurried  to 
him.  Happily,  as  she  believed,  the  phy 
sician  had  exaggerated  the  ailment.  Ains- 
lie  was  right;  the  trouble  was  merely  tem 
porary,  and  there  was  nothing  to  indicate 
a  crisis.  However,  he  had  sent  for  her; 
he  was  ill  at  least,  and  needed  a  cheering 
presence.  They  were  old  friends,  as  he 
had  said,  and  it  was  plainly  her  duty  as  a 
Christian  woman  and  a  sympathetic  com 
panion  to  do  what  she  could  to  make  him 
forget  his  indisposition.  His  face  lighted 
up  when  he  saw  her.  "It  was  good  of 
you  to  come,  Agatha,0  he  said,  "but  I 
knew  you  would  not  desert  me,  even  if  I 
do  belong  to  somebody  else."  He  held 
out  his  hand  in  apology  for  the  raillery. 
"I  stood  it  as  long  as  I  could,  for  you  see 
I  have  not  forgotten  your  principles,  but  I 
was  always  very  weak  and  human.*' 


Little  Miss  Dee 


Agatha  blushed  at  this  mild  word  of  re 
proach,  and  he  smiled  at  her  confusion, 
and  told  her  it  was  not  like  so  strong  a 
woman  to  be  so  easily  embarrassed.  And 
when  she  was  once  more  mistress  of  her 
self  she  sat  down  and  told  him  all  the  gos 
sip  of  the  gay  world,  by  which  she  meant 
the  current  events  in  Mrs.  Braidwood's 
boarding-house.  And  then  they  passed — 
as  they  always  did  pass — back  to  the  long 
ago,  when  everything  was  so  much  better, 
when  the  world  was  brighter  and  life  was 
more  enchanting.  They  went  over  their 
school-days,  and  the  memories  of  the  one 
suggested  the  recollections  of  the  other, 
and  the  sick  man  was  cheered  and  declared 
that  all  the  medicines  in  the  pharmacy  were 
not  worth  one  half-hour's  talk  of  the  old 
days. 

Yet,  in  spite  of  this  amiable  boast,  and 
the  regular  visits  of  Agatha,  who  came 
every  day  with  an  amazing  contempt  for 
her  well-established  principles,  the  invalid 
made  no  progress  toward  recovery,  but 
seemed  rather  to  be  losing  ground,  and 


Little  Miss  Dee 


one  afternoon  as  she  entered  the  room,  she 
observed  that  he  did  not  turn  his  face  to 
greet  her  as  was  his  custom.  She  went 
softly  about  the  room,  thinking  he  was 
sleeping,  but  as  she  saw  him  stir  she 
walked  softly  to  the  bed  where  he  lay  with 
his  face  still  averted. 

"You  did  not  see  me  when  I  came  in, 
Herbert,"  she  said. 

"No,"  he  replied,  "I  did  not  see  you, 
Agatha." 

Then  she  thought  to  rally  him  on  his 
lack  of  gallantry.  "I  thought  you  were 
more  polite  than  that,  and  you  evidently  do 
not  care  to  see  me  now.  Shall  I  go  home 
in  pique?" 

He  turned  at  this  and  looked  in  the 
direction  from  which  the  voice  had  come. 
Then  he  said,  with  a  half-sob  in  his  voice: 
"I  did  not  see  you — because — because — 
Agatha — I  am  blind. ' ' 


'75 


ONE  day  it  seemed  to  Agatha  that  the 
physician's  face  was  graver  as  he 
left  the  house,  and  she  read  in  his  expres 
sion  the  confirmation  of  her  fears  when  she 
first  received  the  message  of  the  illness.  It 
was  toward  the  close  of  the  afternoon,  and 
Ainslie  had  been  restless  and  little  inclined 
to  conversation,  and  she  had  sat  quietly  by 
the  bed  absorbed  in  the  reflections  of  her 
life.  It  seemed  that  everything  that  had 
been  near  to  her  had  passed  or  was  passing 
away,  and  she  wondered  if  so  much  sor 
row  and  bereavement  came  to  others  while 
the  impulse  of  life  was  still  strong  and  the 
gray  was  still  young.  She  did  not  com 
plain,  this  woman  with  the  staunch  heart 
and  abundant  hope,  but  her  mind  ran  back 
to  the  afternoon  when  she  and  the  sick  man 
at  her  side  had  talked  together  in  the  park, 
and  she  asked  herself  if  it  might  not  be 
true  that  she  was  typified  by  the  flower 
that  bloomed  and  died  at  last  alone. 
176 


Little  Miss  Dee 


Ainslie  may  have  read  her  thoughts,  for 
after  a  long  interval  of  silence,  he  said: 
" Agatha,  when  shall  I  be  well  again? 
What  does  the  doctor  say?" 

As  the  physician  had  not  made  any  pre 
dictions,  and  as  she  had  not  had  the  cour 
age  to  ask  him  to  take  her  into  his 
confidence,  she  was  able  to  answer  truth 
fully  that  she  could  not  answer,  but  she 
added,  encouragingly,  as  her  own  opinion, 
that  everything  was  hopeful.  He  smiled 
sadly  and  shook  his  head. 

"Why  should  we  attempt  to  deceive 
each  other  or  ourselves.  I  have  had  no 
visions,  Agatha,  and  I  have  dreamed  no 
dreams,  but  the  sign  has  been  given  to 
me.'*  He  raised  his  hand  to  his  blind 
eyes.  "I  know  that  my  time  has  come 
and  that  I  shall  not  get  well,  whatever 
others  may  think.  We  employ  physicians 
to  do  what  they  can  for  us,  yet  I  believe 
that  something  tells  the  sick  man  in  his 
extremity  that  which  a  physician  can  only 
surmise  through  the  natural  development 
of  disease.  Perhaps  ordinarily  a  man  in 
177 


Little  Miss  Dee 


my  condition  might  recover,  and  a  phy 
sician  might  be  right  in  arguing  from  a 
general  precedent,  but  I  know  instinctively 
that  I  am  going."  He  sighed  and  put  out 
his  hand.  "I  am  not  so  near  the  shadow 
as  yet,"  he  added,  "that  you  may  lead  me 
into  it,  but  I  want  you  to  take  my  hand 
and  let  me  talk  to  you  with  perfect  frank 
ness,  as  I  have  longed  to  speak  in  all 
the  days  you  have  been  coming  to  cheer 
me." 

She  took  his  hand  and  turned  away  her 
face,  forgetting  that  he  could  not  see  the 
truth  and  anxiety  written  there. 

"That  day  we  were  in  the  park  together 
I  pointed  out  to  you  the  rose  dying  and 
alone,  and  I  told  you  how  gloomily  it 
seemed  to  illustrate  the  sadness  of  my  own 
life.  I  think  you  agreed  with  me  at  the 
time,  but  there  were  many  reasons  why 
matters  should  remain  as  they  were,  and  I 
accepted  your  decision.  The  oppression 
of  that  moment  has  been  with  me  ever 
since,  and  I  thank  God  from  the  bottom 
of  my  heart  that  my  fears  were  unnecessary, 
178 


Little  Miss  Dee 


and  that  here  at  the  last  I  am  not  alone 
and  friendless." 

When  she  did  not  answer  he  said:  "I 
am  going  to  die,  Agatha,  and  I  have  no 
fear  of  speaking  to  you  now  as  I  have 
wished  to  speak  and  as  you  will  not  forbid 
me.  You  mentioned  Gertrude,  and  you 
said  I  belonged  to  her.  Well,  if  there  is 
anything  in  the  faith  in  which  we  have  been 
brought  up,  I  may  see  Gertrude  sooner 
than  we  think,  and  I  believe  I  can  make 
my  peace  with  her  for  everything  I  may 
say  to  you.  I  have  no  fear  of  death  or  of 
what  may  come  after  I  have  gone  from 
here,  but  if  I  have  a  feeling  of  remorse  it 
is  because  at  the  end  of  life  my  whole  ex 
istence  seems  so  useless  and  unprofitable. ' ' 

At  Agatha's  expression  of  dissent  he 
smiled  again,  and  continued:  " After  all, 
what  does  it  matter.  I  have  been  happy 
as  men  go,  and  I  have  been  prosperous  as 
men  think.  There  was  a  time  when  I  had 
certain  hopes  and  ambitions  which  I  have 
not  realized.  I  dare  say  that  the  morning 
papers  will  contain  a  short  personal  of 
179 


Little  Miss  Dee 


respect  after  I  have  passed  away,  and  then 
everybody  will  settle  down  to  his  own 
affairs,  and  I  shall  be  forgotten.  It  might 
have  been  different,  but  I  presume,  to  go 
back  to  our  favorite  excuse,  it  was  all  fore 
ordained.  '  * 

"You  must  not  talk  in  this  way,"  ex 
claimed  Agatha;  "it  is  not  true,  Herbert, 
and  it  is  wicked. ' ' 

"I  hope  it  is  not  wicked,  Agatha,"  he 
answered,  "but  it  is  certainly  true.  I 
lived  happily  with  Gertrude  and  she  was  a 
better  wife  than  I  deserved.  And  still  I 
feel  that  if  her  nature  had  been  stronger 
or  mine  less  weak,  my  life  would  have 
been  rounder  and  more  complete.  I  be 
lieve  that  if  I  had  kept  steadily  on  in  the 
path  we  were  traveling  when  we  were  both 
young  and  ambitious,  and  had  been  stead 
fast  to  the  ideals  we  both  cherished,  and 
had  been  mindful  of  the  woman  I  then 
loved — you  must  let  me  speak  now, 
Agatha — I  should  have  had  less  at  this 
hour  to  repent.  You  cannot  change  this 
conviction,  Agatha,  for  at  such  a  time  as 
180 


Little  Miss  Dee 


this  a  man  speaks  with  a  greater  light  and 
a  clearer  understanding.  For  myself  I 
have  no  wish  to  live,  since  I  have  gained 
all  that  I  can  hope  for,  but  it  is  hard  for 
me  to  go,  dear,  and  know  that  I  am  leav 
ing  you  just  at  a  time  when,  with  all  your 
strength  of  character,  you  may  need  me. ' ' 

The  tears  came  to  Agatha's  eyes  at  the 
little  word  of  affection  which  took  her  back 
to  the  springtime  they  had  talked  about  so 
much,  and  she  almost  grieved  that  he  could 
not  see  them  as  they  ran  down  her  cheeks. 
Where,  then,  was  all  this  martyrdom  to 
principle,  this  obligation  to  a  woman  long 
dead,  this  devotion  to  a  preconceived  duty? 
What  was  Agatha  Dee  in  a  moment  of 
supreme  test?  A  woman,  with  a  woman's 
sympathy  and  a  woman's  tender  weakness. 

"I  have  always  thought,"  Ainslie  said, 
"that  when  it  came  my  time  to  die,  I 
should  like  to  go  back  to  my  childhood 
home  and  pass  away  among  the  scenes  I 
first  knew  and  loved.  Perhaps  it  is  just  as 
well  that  I  cannot,  for  there  must  be 
changes  there,  and  a  new  growth  with  a 
181 


Little  Miss  Dee 


new  people.  Yet  I  think  now  that  I 
would  gladly  give  years  of  a  life  that  might 
be  left  to  me  to  be  back  there  for  a  week 
with  you,  Agatha — even  though  you  had 
to  lead  me  in  my  darkness — just  to  believe 
that  we  were  young  again,  that  all  these 
years  have  been  a  dream,  and  that  we  were 
starting  out  full  of  hope  and  ambition. 
To  the  close  of  this  foolish  life  of  mine  I 
have  been  an  indolent  dreamer,  and  it  is 
natural  enough  that  I  should  go  out  still 
dreaming. ' ' 

"Is  it  right  to  talk  this  way?"  cried 
Agatha.  ' ' Is  it  honest?  Is  it  just?' ' 

"Why  should  it  not  be?  I  have  tried  to 
be  a  philosopher  with  all  my  dreaming,  and 
when  it  comes  to  a  man  to  leave  the  world, 
why  should  not  his  mind  revert  to  those 
scenes  and  those  things  which  bring  him 
the  greatest  happiness?'* 

"Because,'*  said  Agatha,  "we  should 
rather  think  of  the  happiness  that  is  yet  to 
come  in  the  other  world. ' ' 

"I  shall  not  be  unmindful  of  that,  I 
hope,"  replied  Ainslie,  "but  to-day  let  me 
182 


Little  Miss  Dee 


be  happy  in  the  thought  of  what  I  once 
had  and  what  I  still  love.  It  will  all  be 
gone  soon  enough."  He  sighed  and  set 
tled  back  as  if  he  would  give  himself  up  to 
the  thoughts  of  those  vanished  joys,  but 
presently  he  said:  "Put  your  hand  under 
the  pillow,  Agatha,  and  take  out  the  case 
you  will  find  there.  Do  you  know  what  it 
is?  Do  you  remember  the  evening  we 
parted  so  many  years  ago,  and  how  I 
showed  you  the  miniature  and  told  you  I 
should  never  give  it  up?  I  cannot  see  you 
with  my  eyes,  Agatha,  and  I  cannot  see 
the  miniature,  and  it  is  just  as  well,  for 
mentally  I  can  see  both,  and  it  is  so  pleas 
ant  to  lie  here  and  dream  that  I  am  back  in 
the  old  home.  That  night  we  sat  in  the 
garden  on  the  bank  overlooking  the  river! 
I  can  see  you  now,  just  as  you  are  in  the 
miniature,  with  your  soft  hair  tied  up  in  a 
knot  behind  and  waving  down  over  your 
cheeks,  with  that  high  comb  at  the  back 
and  the  old  cameo  brooch  fastened  at  your 
throat.  We  quarreled  at  first  that  night, 
didn't  we?  And  I  used  bitter  words  which 
183 


Little  Miss  Dee 


I  soon  repented  of  and  took  back?  Surely 
there  is  compensation  for  the  blindness 
that  has  overtaken  me,  for  it  is  so  easy  to 
imagine  that  thirty  years  are  only  a  night's 
slumber,  and  that  I  can  still  feel  the  wind 
blowing  from  the  prairie,  and  smell  the 
honeysuckle,  and  hear  the  whistle  of  the 
steamboat  far  down  the  river. ' ' 

He  lay  there  quietly,  lost  in  the  recollec 
tions  of  the  past,  and  Agatha,  still  holding  his 
hand,  allowed  her  tears  to  flow  unchecked 
at  his  picture  of  the  old  glad  home.  He 
turned  his  sightless  eyes  toward  her  and 
whispered:  "Take  the  miniature,  Agatha, 
and  bring  it  with  you  when  you  come. 
You  must  be  with  me  at  the  end.  I  shall 
not  torment  you  long,  dear,  and  remember 
that  what  I  ask  is  only  right,  or  I  could  not 
ask  it  at  this  time. ' ' 

She  waited  until  she  could  control  her 
voice  before  she  said:  "It  is  right,  and  at 
the  end  I  shall  be  with  you,  dear. ' ' 

A  smile  of  happiness  lighted  up  his  face. 
He  carried  her  hand  to  his  lips  and  kissed 
it. 

184 


Little  Miss  Dee 


So  Agatha  Dee  sat  and  waited  for  the 
day  that  was  to  bring  peace  and  rest  to 
the  sufferer,  and  add  for  her  another  to 
her  lost  illusions.  And  the  great  world 
that  rumbled  on  outside  knew  nothing,  and 
would  not  have  cared  if  it  had  known,  of 
the  bit  of  human  tragedy  in  the  wasted 
love  life  of  the  old  maid  and  the  dying 
man. 


185 


LITTLE  MISS  DEE  turned  over  and 
over  the  letter  she  held  in  her  hand, 
scanning  the  business  address  and  fruit 
lessly  attempting  to  read  through  the  en 
velope  in  the  manner  peculiar  to  women. 
Her  teeth  were  set,  and  there  was  a  flash 
of  defiance  in  her  eye.  She  had  asked 
Miss  Parsons  to  come  to  her  room,  and 
that  grief-pursuing  lady,  who  had  enjoyed 
rather  more  sorrow  of  late  than  she  de 
sired,  sat  opposite,  anxiously  scanning  her 
friend's  face  and  awaiting  developments. 
"Well,  what  is  it  now?"  she  finally  ven 
tured  to  ask. 

"I  may  as  well  tell  you  first  as  last, 
Sarah  Parsons,"  Agatha  said,  resolutely, 
"I  shall  not  do  it." 

"Not  do  what?" 

"This  is  a  letter  from  a  lawyer,  a  man 

I  never  heard  of, ' '  she  replied,  and  then, 

as  if  taken  with  the  idea  that  possibly  it 

might  be  a  clever  idea  to  inform  herself  of 

186 


Little  Miss  Dee 


the  contents  before  saying  more,  she  broke 
the  seal  and  read  slowly  to  the  end.  "He 
asks  me  to  call  at  his  office  on  important 
business,  and  I  think  I  know  what  that 
business  is.  It  is  the  same  old  wrangle 
about  repairing  the  sidewalk  in  front  of  my 
property  at  home,  which  was  broken  down 
through  no  fault  of  mine,  and  evidently  this 
city  lawyer  has  been  employed  to  harass 
me.  I  try  to  pay  my  bills,  Sarah  Parsons, 
but  do  you  think  I  ought  to  be  imposed  on 
in  this  manner?*' 

"It  may  be  something  else/*  suggested 
Miss  Parsons. 

"What  else  can  it  be?  I  owe  no  money 
and  nobody  owes  me  money.  And  I  have 
heard  father  say  scores  of  times  that  the 
only  business  lawyers  have  with  people  is 
when  they  are  trying  to  collect  something. 
I  must  consult  Archibald  about  this. ' ' 

"Why  not  go  to  the  lawyer  and  find  out 
exactly  what  the  trouble  is,"  said  Miss 
Parsons.  "Then  if  there  is  any  real  diffi 
culty  you  still  have  Archibald  to  help 
you." 

187 


Little  Miss  Dee 


"Perhaps  you  are  right,  * '  mused  Agatha. 
"I  never  thought  of  that,  and  after  all,  I 
shall  find  out  at  once  by  going  myself. 
Not  that  I  have  much  curiosity  in  the  mat 
ter,  but  the  sooner  it  is  over  the  better." 

She  made  all  reasonable  haste  and  went 
down  town  to  the  law  offices  of  Wrantham 
&  Wright.  A  certain  amount  of  red  tape 
was  necessary  before  even  a  woman  with 
so  palpable  a  grievance  as  that  which  actu 
ated  Agatha  Dee  could  get  past  the  small 
boy  at  the  door,  the  clerk  at  the  counter, 
and  the  private  secretary  at  the  entrance 
of  the  inner  chamber,  and  she  felt  her 
spirits  sinking  and  her  courage  oozing 
away  when  she  was  permitted  at  last  to 
approach  Mr.  John  Wrantham,  senior 
member  of  the  firm  and  leading  ornament 
of  the  bar. 

"I  have  come  to  see  you  about  that  side 
walk,  Mr.  Wrantham/'  Agatha  began, 
timidly.  There  was  a  quaver  in  her  voice, 
and  there  was  a  suspicion  of  tears  in  her 
eyes.  "I  hope  we  shall  understand  each 
other  at  the  start.  This  seems  to  me  a 
[88 


Little  Miss  Dee 


very  cruel  proceeding,  and  I  am  afraid  I 
must  contest  it  vigorously. ' ' 

Mr.  Wrantham  was  rubbing  his  chin 
reflectively  when  this  explosion  came.  He 
was  a  small  man  physically,  with  reddish 
hair  that  bristled  defiantly  or  cheerfully 
according  to  his  mood,  and  it  was  standing 
at  various  angles  before  Agatha  had  fin 
ished.  He  looked  at  the  card  the  secre 
tary  brought,  then  over  his  spectacles  at 
the  little  woman  in  front  of  him,  and  then 
he  laughed — a  strictly  legal  laugh  acquired 
by  long  and  successful  evasion  of  contempt 
of  court. 

"My  dear  madam,"  he  said,  waving  his 
hand  as  an  invitation  to  her  to  sit  down, 
' '  I  shall  be  ready,  if  necessary  to  assist  you 
in  any  contest  about  the  sidewalk  that 
seems  to  trouble  you,  but  I  suspect  there 
is  no  occasion  to  worry  ourselves  about  it 
to-day.  Possibly  there  is  a  slight  mistake 
somewhere.  Am  I  to  understand  that  I 
have  the  honor  of  addressing  Miss  Agatha 
Dee?'* 

"My  name  is  Agatha  Dee!" 
189 


Little  Miss  Dee 


"And  I  am  also  right  in  believing  that 
you  were  the  friend  of  the  late  Herbert 
Ainslie?" 

Agatha's  face  fell,  and  she  answered, 
very  quietly,  "I  knew  Mr.  Ainslie  very 
well.  We  were  friends  many  years. ' ' 

"Yes?  I  thought  so.  And  did  Mr. 
Ainslie,  before  his  death,  have  any  busi 
ness  conversation  with  you?" 

She  looked  at  the  lawyer  in  surprise. 
"Business  conversation?  Of  course  not. 
Why  should  you  think  of  such  a  thing?" 

"Nothing  said  about  money  or  prop 
erty?" 

"Certainly  not." 

The  lawyer  glanced  at  her  sharply,  and 
Agatha  felt  her  courage  vanishing  again. 
He  smiled,  and  said,  "Miss  Dee,  I  think 
I  may  have  pleasant  news  for  you.  Mr. 
Ainslie  was  my  client,  and  I  drew  up  his 
will.  If  you  are  the  Agatha  Dee  I  am 
looking  for,  and  I  believe  you  are,  you  are 
named  in  the  document  as  the  sole  bene 
ficiary,  and  I  congratulate  you  heartily." 

Agatha  stared  at  him  helplessly.     "Do 
190 


Little  Miss  Dee 


you  mean  to  say  that  Mr.  Ainslie  in  his 
will  has  left  money  to  me?" 

"Money  or  its  equivalent,  enough  in 
fact  to  make  you  quite  independent  for  the 
rest  of  your  life — provided  you  are  not  too 
extravagant,"  he  added,  smilingly.  "Mr. 
Ainslie  was  a  cautious  man,  and  a  good 
investor,  and  while  he  would  not  be  con 
sidered  wealthy  as  fortunes  go  nowadays, 
he  never  had  to  deny  himself  in  any  reason 
able  way. ' ' 

Agatha  did  not  hear  him.  She  sat  in  a 
sort  of  stupor,  and  her  mind  was  off  in  the 
little  room  at  the  top  of  Mrs.  Braidwood's 
house.  And  she  said  aloud,  though  as  if 
speaking  to  herself,  "Now  I  can  have  that 
back  room  on  the  second  story  that  I  have 
been  looking  at  so  long.  It  has  a  lovely 
view  and  a  large  grate,  and  two  windows 
just  the  right  size  for  flower-boxes.  And 
the  closet  is  ideal." 

The  lawyer's  laugh  brought  her  to  her 
self.  "Yes,  I  think  I  can  promise  you  the 
room,  Miss  Dee,  if  it  is  not  too  expensive. 
You  must  make  up  your  mind  to  keep 
191 


Little  Miss  Dee 


within  your  means,  but  I  dare  say  you  will 
be  able  to  arrange  to  gratify  your  first 
wish." 

She  blushed  at  this.  Then  her  mind 
traveled  quickly  to  the  cemetery  where  the 
man  who  had  thought  of  her  was  sleeping. 
And  she  remembered  that  he  had  said  that 
he  wished  to  live  only  that  he  might  look 
after  her  and  care  for  her.  Her  eyes  filled, 
and  when  she  tried  to  speak  her  voice 
failed.  Mr.  Wrantham  saw  her  agitation, 
and  said,  gently,  "I  think  that  is  all  we 
may  discuss  now,  Miss  Dee.  Certain 
forms  and  observances  must  be  gone 
through  which  we  shall  look  after  very 
shortly.  I  think  perhaps  I  have  told  you 
all  you  will  be  able  to  stand  to-day. ' ' 

As  Agatha  rose  to  go,  she  said,  timidly, 
"  Before  I  do  anything  foolish,  Mr.  Wran 
tham,  I  should  like  to  know,  if  you  can  tell 
me,  something  about  the  value  of  the 
estate." 

The  lawyer's  look  was  quizzically  humor 
ous.  "I  am  sorry  to  say  that  I  cannot  tell 
you  exactly  at  this  minute,  but  I  should 
192 


Little  Miss  Dee 


say,  at  a  fair  estimate,  about  a  hundred 
thousand  dollars. ' ' 

Agatha  gasped.  "A  hundred  thousand 
dollars!  Mercy!  is  there  so  much  money 
in  the  world?" 

"But,  of  course/'  he  added,  "you  will 
not  rush  into  any  wild  extravagances,  Miss 
Dee.  I  am  pretty  sure  that  we  can  ar 
range  for  that  room  if  we  are  sufficiently 
economical  in  other  directions.  And  as 
for  that  sidewalk,  perhaps  it  would  be 
cheaper  in  the  long  run  to  give  in  to  the 
authorities.  Still,  if  you  retain  me  as  your 
counsel,  I  shall  necessarily  do  what  I  can 
to  win  the  case. ' ' 

Agatha  went  out  into  the  street  with  her 
head  swimming.  A  hundred  thousand 
dollars!  Yes,  that  was  the  sum  he  men 
tioned.  There  was  old  Griggs  back  home 
who  was  said  to  be  worth  almost  a  hundred 
thousand  dollars,  and  people  stopped  and 
looked  at  him  as  he  went  along  the  street. 
She  wondered  if  the  people  were  looking 
at  her,  and  if  they  were  nudging  one 
another,  and  speaking  enviously  of  her 
193 


Little  Miss  Dee 


great  wealth.  Of  course  she  could  have 
that  second  story  back,  and  fix  it  up,  too. 
She  remembered  that  the  dresser  looked  a 
little  shabby,  and  there  was  a  slight  crack 
at  the  right  of  the  top  of  the  mirror.  She 
should  complain  of  that  at  once.  And 
occasionally,  on  Sunday  morning,  she  could 
have  her  breakfast  sent  up,  just  as  old  Mrs. 
Bornham  in  the  second  story  had  been 
doing  for  a  year.  How  astonished  the 
people  around  her  would  be  the  first  Satur 
day  night  she  said,  "Mrs.  Braidwood,  you 
will  please  send  my  breakfast  to  my  room 
to-morrow  morning."  She  would  say  it 
without  a  tremor  in  her  voice,  just  as  com 
posedly  as  if  she  thought  it  a  small  matter 
hardly  worth  mentioning.  Indeed,  the 
prospect  was  so  fascinating  that  she  was 
not  sure  that  she  would  not  anticipate  the 
receipt  of  her  fortune  and  begin  next 
Saturday  night. 

"But  what  selfishness  is  this,   Agatha 
Dee?"  she  thought.     "Here  you  are  mak 
ing  all  sorts  of  plans  for  your  own  lazy 
comfort,  and  entirely  forgetting  the  thou- 
194 


Little  Miss  Dee 


sands  of  poor  and  helpless  people  you  can 
so  easily  benefit.  How  many  people  in 
the  world,  do  you  think,  are  so  well  situ 
ated  as  you,  with  everything  to  make  you 
happy,  a  good  home,  good  friends,  and  a 
boy  who  is  going  to  be  famous?  I  am  dis 
gusted  with  you,  Agatha  Dee;  you  seem  to 
have  no  thought  above  yourself  and  your 
own  miserable  pleasures." 

And  as  she  trudged  along  she  communed 
further:  "Is  it  proper  and  dignified  for  a 
woman  with  a  hundred  thousand  dollars  to 
be  poking  on  in  this  way?  How  pleasant 
it  would  be  to  call  a  cab  and  ride  up  to  the 
house.  The  objection  to  that  might  be 
that  everybody  would  think  I  am  ill,  and 
it  might  cause  unnecessary  alarm.  No,  I 
must  be  thoughtful  as  well  as  prudent. 
Yet,  I  wish  Sarah  Parsons  could  see  me 
coming  home  in  a  cab,  handing  the  driver 
a  dollar,  and  saying,  'Never  mind  the 
change,  my  good  man.'  Mercy  sakes, 
how  I  am  going  on!  I  am  forgetting  all 
that  Mr.  Wrantham  said,  and  am  positively 
throwing  my  money  away.  If  I  keep  on 
195 


Little  Miss  Dee 


like  this  I  shall  not  be  able  to  rent  that 
second-story  room  after  all.  And  how 
pleased  Archibald  will  be.  Perhaps  Luella 
will  be  a  little  more  gracious  when  she 
finds  that  her  husband 's  folks  have  money 
in  the  bank,  and  are  able  to  afford  style. 
Poor  girl!  it  isn't  her  fault  that  she  is  so 
cold.  I  know  she  has  a  kind  heart  and 
the  best  intentions  in  the  world,  but  she 
simply  does  not  know  how  to  let  herself 
out." 

A  car  carne  along.  It  was  a  conde 
scension  for  a  woman  of  her  means  to 
patronize  the  ordinary  method  of  transit, 
but  Agatha  felt  that  she  must  begin  to  give 
herself  a  lesson  in  humility  and  economy. 
She  dropped  into  a  seat  behind  two  men 
and  surrendered  herself  to  more  pleasing 
thoughts  of  her  opulence  and  opportunities 
of  doing  good.  She  paid  no  attention  to 
the  conversation  of  the  men  in  front  of  her, 
and  was  dimly  conscious  that  they  were 
talking  of  excitement  in  the  stock  market, 
of  a  panic  somewhere,  and  of  great  gains 
and  losses — things  that  could  not  be  of  the 
196 


Little  Miss  Dee 


slightest  interest  to  her.     Presently  one  of 
the  men  said: 

"Were  many  of  the  boys  bitten?" 

"Any  number  of  them,  and  I  think  it 
served  them  right.  Mighty  little  sym 
pathy  they'll  get  from  me.  Still  I  can't 
help  feeling  sorry  for  Dee. ' ' 

Agatha's  heart  gave  a  great  leap.  The 
conductor  at  that  moment  called  out  the 
name  of  a  street,  and  there  was  confusion 
among  those  leaving  the  car,  but  she  heard 
the  other  man  ask: 

"What's  the  matter  with  Dee?  Did  he 
get  caught  in  the  squeeze?" 

"Did  he?  Well,  it's  reported  that  he's 
in  it  all  the  way  from  fifty  to  a  hundred 
thousand  dollars.  At  least  that's  the  talk 
at  the  club,  and  it  came  very  straight. 
Dee  is  a  good  fellow,  and  I  thought  he  was 
too  smart  to  be  inveigled  into  that  spider- 
web.  It  all  goes  to  show  that  the  stock 
market  will  get  the  best  of  them  when  they 
go  to  fooling  with  schemes  outside  their 
legitimate  business." 

"Just  married,  isn't  he?" 
197 


Little  Miss  Dee 


"He  hasn't  been  married  very  long,  and 
that's  the  hard  part  of  it.  You  know  Dee 
had  little  or  no  money  of  his  own,  and  he 
married  old  Blatchford's  daughter,  who 
had  considerable  money  in  her  own  right. 
Of  course  he  has  been  speculating  with  his 
wife's  money,  and  there's  where  the  trouble 
comes  in.  Did  you  ever  know  Luella 
Blatchford?" 

"I've  never  met  her,  but  I'm  told  she's 
very  severe." 

"She's  as  cold  as  a  fish  and  as  hard  as 
a  rock,  and  why  Archie  Dee,  who  is  one  of 
the  best  fellows  in  the  world,  ever  married 
her  nobody  has  succeeded  in  finding  out. 
If  I  were  in  his  place  at  this  minute,  with 
the  knowledge  of  that  miscalculation  in 
stocks  hanging  over  me,  I'd  never  go 
home.  South  Africa  wouldn't  be  too  far 
away  for  me." 

The  car  stopped  again,  and  Agatha, 
hardly  conscious  of  what  she  was  doing, 
followed  in  the  train  of  those  who  got  out. 
She  stood  on  the  corner  bewildered  and 
frightened.  Newsboys  were  running  back 
198 


Little  Miss  Dee 


and  forth  shouting  the  news  of  the  panic  in 
stocks.  The  words  of  the  man  were  still 
ringing  in  her  ears.  Exactly  what  he 
meant  she  could  not  understand.  Dis 
grace,  ruin,  poverty,  it  was  all  the  same  to 
her.  She  knew  only  that  her  boy  was  in 
trouble,  and  her  one  impulse  was  to  help 
him,  to  rescue  him,  to  show  him  that  while 
one  woman  might  drive  him  away  with 
reproaches  and  scorn,  there  was  another 
who  believed  in  him  and  would  save  him. 
A  down-town  car  stopped  at  the  crossing; 
she  signaled,  and  went  inside. 

John  Wrantham  was  picking  up  his  hat 
and  papers  just  before  leaving  the  office 
when  Agatha,  who  had  fairly  brushed  aside 
the  door  boy  and  the  clerk  at  the  counter 
and  the  private  secretary,  came  in  upon  him. 
He  looked  surprised  at  the  informality  of 
the  entrance,  but  said,  pleasantly,  "Well, 
Miss  Dee,  have  you  come  back  to  tell  me 
that  you  have  found  something  better  than 
that  second-story  room?" 

"O,  Mr.  Wrantham,"  she  exclaimed, 
"don't  speak  of  that  folly  to  me  now. 
199 


Little  Miss  Dee 


You  must  help  us,  you  must  save  us,  for 
we  are  in  great  trouble!'* 

"Trouble?"  echoed  the  lawyer,  "as 
soon  as  this?  Why,  it  hasn't  been  thirty 
minutes  since  I  thought  I  had  banished  all 
your  trouble  for  life. ' ' 

Agatha  repeated  as  accurately  as  she 
could  the  conversation  she  had  heard  in  the 
car.  The  lawyer  listened  thoughtfully, 
and  wrinkled  his  brows  as  the  full  import 
reached  him.  "It  is  true  that  there  has 
been  a  great  slump  in  stocks,"  he  said, 
"and  I  have  heard  that  there  has  been  an 
unprecedented  amount  of  gambling  by  out 
siders.  I  know  your  boy,  as  you  call  him, 
and  he  is  a  bright  young  fellow.  Claxton 
tells  me  that  he  will  make  a  fine  lawyer, 
though  this  is  not  a  very  good  way  of 
rising  in  one's  profession.  Still  he  is 
young  and  unaccustomed  to  large  sums  of 
money,  and  this  lesson,  if  what  you  tell  me 
is  true,  may  be  the  means  of  curing  him  of 
the  most  idiotic  of  all  forms  of  folly,  and 
convince  him  that  the  best  way  to  suc 
ceed  in  life  is  to  stick  to  one's  legitimate 

200 


Little  Miss  Dee 


business.  Now,  what  do  you  wish  me 
to  do?" 

" To-day,"  replied  Agatha,  impetuously, 
"you  told  me  that  I  am  rich,  that  I  have 
come  into  possession  of  thousands  of  dol 
lars.  I  come  to  you  and  tell  you  that  my 
boy  is  in  trouble,  and  you  ask  me  what  I 
wish  you  to  do.  Does  not  your  natural 
feeling  say  what  I  should  do?  Mr. 
Wrantham,  I  must  save  my  boy.  * ' 

"Exactly  so,"  said  the  lawyer,  cooliy. 
"Now,  assuming  that  everything  is  as  has 
been  rumored,  and  I  am  sorry  to  say  that 
I  fear  it  is,  and  Archibald  Dee  is  in  finan 
cial  difficulties,  it  is  perfectly  natural  that 
you  should  wish  to  help  him.  But  how  do 
you  propose  to  do  it?  Do  you  wish  to  pay 
his  debts?" 

"Certainly,  as  long  as  he  cannot  pay 
them  himself." 

"Then  why  do  you  not  go  to  him  and 
find  out  the  facts  in  the  case,  and  exactly, 
if  possible,  the  extent  of  his  liabilities.  If 
they  are  not  too  heavy  perhaps  we  may 
arrange  a  way  of  paying  them." 

201 


Little  Miss  Dee 


"Go  to  him  with  such  an  offer?  You 
don't  know  Archie,  and  how  proud  he  is. 
Do  you  think  I  could  humiliate  him  by 
letting  him  know  that  I  am  paying  off  his 
obligations?  That  would  never  do.  We 
must  think  of  a  better  plan  than  that. ' ' 

"I  am  not  worrying  very  much  about 
his  pride, "  retorted  the  lawyer,  a  little 
gruffly,  "and  I  confess  I  do  not  see  my 
way  clear  to  any  easy  way  of  meeting  the 
difficulty.  The  estate  was  not  left  to  him, 
and  it  would  be  absurd  to  think  of  hum 
bugging  him  into  believing  that  he  is 
Herbert  Ainslie's  heir.  Moreover,  it  is 
legally  impossible.  It  would  be  equally 
out  of  the  question  to  try  to  convince  him 
that  he  has  received  so  large  an  estate  from 
any  other  source  without  showing  the 
papers  and  documents.  I  commend  your 
disinterestedness  and  unselfish  purpose, 
Miss  Dee,  but  I  say  again  that  I  do  not 
see  how  we  are  going  to  accomplish  this 
task  while  you  remain  in  the  background. ' ' 

"And  yet  you  are  a  lawyer,"  said 
Agatha,  "and  probably  pride  yourself  on 


Little  Miss  Dee 


your  shrewdness.  Here  I  have  come  to 
you  and  put  all  my  fortune  in  your  hands 
and  tell  you  to  take  it  and  save  my  boy, 
and  you  reply  that  you  do  not  see  how  we 
can  do  it.  I  thought  a  lawyer  could  do 
anything  with  money. ' ' 

" Since  you  put  it  that  way,"  and  he 
smiled  grimly,  "you  excite  my  prof essional 
zeal  and  conceit.  Now  tell  me,  does 
Archibald  Dee  know  anything  about  this 
legacy?" 

"How  should  he?  I  have  known  it 
myself  less  than  an  hour. ' ' 

"And  he  understands  that  you  have  no 
money — I  mean,  of  course,  no  large  sum 
of  money?" 

He  understands  that^perf ectly. " 

"Well,  we  shall  try  the  only  plan  that  is 
in  the  least  degree  feasible,  and  even  that 
may  fail.  When  a  man  is  in  desperate 
straits — as  Dee  must  be  if  he  has  sunk  his 
wife's  money — he  is  likely  to  grasp  at  any 
thing  without  asking  too  many  embarrass 
ing  questions.  Dee  does  not  know  that 
we  are  acquainted.  He  knows  nothing  of 
203 


Little  Miss  Dee 


the  will  or  the  legacy.  He  believes  you 
have  only  the  small  income  on  which  you 
have  lived.  Very  good;  I  shall  go  to  him 
therefore  as  the  agent  of  a  friend,  who 
wishes  to  be  unknown  for  the  present,  and 
shall  offer  to  aid  him  and  pay  off  his  obli 
gations  if  possible.  This  seems  like  an 
absurd  proposition  to  a  man  in  his  sensible 
moments,  but  the  chances  are  that  he  will 
be  so  glad  of  any  assistance  that  he  will 
look  at  it  as  a  gift  from  heaven,  and  ask  for 
no  particulars.  I  do  not  know  how  large 
his  indebtedness  is,  or  whether  I  can  real 
ize  enough  on  Mr.  Ainslie's  securities  to 
meet  it.  But  whatever  may  be  the  sum  I 
advance,  I  shall  make  it  clear  to  him  that 
it  is  only  a  loan,  and  must  be  repaid  as 
soon  as  possible.  Does  this  meet  your 
approval?" 

"Entirely,"  exclaimed  Agatha,  raptur 
ously.  "And  I  know  it  will  succeed.  I 
wish  to  apologize  to  you,  Mr.  Wrantham, 
for  the  ill-natured  remark  I  made  a  mo 
ment  ago.  You  are  certainly  an  able 
lawyer. ' ' 

304 


Little  Miss  Dee 


"Thank  you  for  the  compliment.  I 
hope  I  shall  continue  to  grow  in  your  good 
opinion.  And  now  forgive  me,  Miss  Dee, 
if  I  seem  to  be  a  little  brutal,  but  we  able 
lawyers  must  be  sure  of  our  ground.  Are 
you  perfectly  content  to  make  this  sacrifice?1' 

"It  is  no  sacrifice,  Mr.  Wrantham,  to 
give  up  what  I  have  never  had. ' ' 

"But  it  amounts  to  the  same  thing. 
Consider  for  a  moment,  my  dear  madam, 
if  you  please.  The  payment  of  this  in 
debtedness  may  sweep  away  your  whole 
fortune,  may  deprive  you  of  comforts  to 
which  your  age  entitles  you.  By  your  own 
wish  nobody  will  ever  hear  of  your  good 
deed.  Your  adopted  son  himself,  uncon 
scious  that  the  unknown  friend  is  one  so 
near  to  him,  and  knowing  nothing  of  your 
privation,  may  be  cunning  enough  and  un 
scrupulous  enough,  to  default.  You  will 
shut  yourself  out  from  every  avenue  of 
gratitude,  and  while  I  may  strive  to  secure 
payment  of  the  money,  it  may  be  entirely 
out  of  my  power  to  do  so.  Have  you 
thought  of  all  this?" 

205 


Little  Miss  Dee 


The  tears  stood  in  Agatha's  eyes. 
1 '  Mr.  Wrantham,  I  have  no  desire  to  think 
of  it.  I  believe,  as  I  believed  in  the  stead- 
fastnessof  Herbert  Ainslie's  friendship,  that 
this  money  was  given  to  me  as  the  means 
of  doing  good.  I  was  perfectly  happy  and 
contented  before  I  received  your  letter, 
and  I  shall  be  just  as  happy  to-day  when 
I  go  back  to  my  little  room.  In  fact,  I 
shall  be  even  happier, ' '  she  added,  gently, 
"for  I  shall  feel  that  I  have  saved  my  boy. '  ' 

The  lawyer  rose  from  his  chair  and  came 
over  to  Agatha.  His  voice  was  a  little 
husky  as  he  said:  "When  I  drew  up  Mr. 
Ainslie's  will,  Miss  Dee,  we  talked  to 
gether  freely,  as  old  friends  may.  He  told 
me,  among  other  things  connected  with  his 
life,  and  I  may  say,  with  you,  the  interest 
ing  story  of  your  family  prophecy,  and  in 
naming  you  as  the  sole  recipient  of  his 
estate,  he  said,  'John,  Agatha  Dee  is  the 
last  of  her  family.  This  sort  of  assistance 
may  be  of  no  value,  but  I  am  going  to  do 
what  I  can  rto  help  her  to  succeed  where 
the  others  have  failed. '  J ' 
206 


Little  Miss  Dee 


He  turned  away  and  cleared  his  throat. 
And  then  he  exploded,  "Miss  Dee,  I  am 
honored  by  your  presence  and  your  confi 
dence.  I  wish  Ainslie  could  be  here  at 
this  moment  to  see  how  nobly  he  has  suc 
ceeded.  Madam,  will  you  permit  me  to 
kiss  your  hand?  This  is  true  heroism,  and 
the  prophecy  is  fulfilled!" 


307 


THE  footing  of  the  Archibald  Dees 
was  firmly  established.  Many  en 
vied  and  nobody  disputed  their  social  posi 
tion,  and  when  Mrs.  Dee  spoke  in  her 
haughty,  imperious,  judicial  manner,  the 
proposition  under  debate  was  dismissed  as 
settled.  The  slight  suspicion  with  which 
Archibald  had  been  regarded  in  business 
circles  at  the  time  of  the  flurry  in  stocks 
had  been  banished  by  his  manly  course  in 
promptly  arranging  for  the  payment  of  his 
obligations  in  full,  and  he  was  pointed  out 
as  a  shining  example  of  commercial  integ 
rity  by  old  men  to  their  sons.  Everybody 
declared  that  doubtless  the  matter  had  been 
greatly  exaggerated,  and  there  was  general 
congratulation,  for  Dee  was  a  fine  fellow 
who  deserved  all  the  prosperity  that  could 
come  to  him.  Wrantham,  the  lawyer,  had 
judged  shrewdly  when  he  said  that  Archi 
bald  would  be  too  overjoyed  at  his  release 
from  trouble  and  worry  to  press  questions 
208 


Little  Miss  Dee 


which  could  not  be  answered,  but  Wran- 
tham  did  not  hesitate  to  represent  to  him 
that  he  would  be  held  strictly  responsible 
by  his  unknown  friend  for  the  repayment 
of  every  dollar  advanced.  To  this  Archi 
bald  readily  assented,  realizing  that  pay 
ment  in  the  indefinite  future  is  much  to  be 
preferred  to  exposure  and  possible  ruin  in 
the  present. 

It  had  come  to  Mrs.  Dee's  ears,  through 
the  kindness  of  one  of  her  closest  women 
friends,  that  they  were  supposed  to  have 
suffered  serious  financial  reverses,  and  the 
proud-spirited  woman,  chafing  under  so 
absurd  an  imputation,  had  determined  to 
give  a  reception  that  in  point  of  brilliancy 
and  magnificence  would  expose  the  hollow- 
ness  of  such  gossip.  The  list  of  notable 
guests,  in  accordance  with  the  custom  of 
the  Dee  household,  had  not  been  referred 
to  Archibald  for  his  inspection,  and  it  was 
by  the  merest  accident  that  he  learned 
that  Agatha's  name  had  been  omitted. 
Archibald  was  a  peace-loving  young  man, 
and  he  therefore  suggested  in  the  mildest 
209 


Little  Miss  Dee 


of  tones  that  it  would  gratify  him  extremely 
if  his  mother  could  be  included  in  the  list 
of  guests.  Luella,  always  cool  and  rational, 
endeavored  to  point  out  to  him  how  absurd 
such  inclusion  would  be;  that  Agatha  did 
not  mingle  at  all  in  the  exclusive  set;  that 
her  presence  would  be  embarrassing  to 
herself,  and  unrecognized  by  the  company; 
and  that  such  experiments  invariably 
proved  disastrous.  Whereupon  Archibald, 
with  a  brave  show  of  unexpected  spirit, 
declared  that  it  was  not  his  mother's  fault 
that  she  did  not  move  among  their  friends, 
and  that  if  she  would  not  be  recognized  the 
embarrassment  would  be  naturally  re 
moved.  To  this  Luella  responded  that 
she  had  made  out  the  list  according  to  her 
ideas  of  propriety  and  would  not  change  it, 
but  that  if  Archibald  chose  to  ask  his 
mother,  and  would  be  responsible  for  her 
entertainment,  he  was  at  perfect  liberty  to 
do  so.  For  her  part  she  believed  it  would  be 
a  distinct  kindness  to  say  nothing  to  her,  for 
she  dressed  like  a  guy,  and  was  sure  to  do 
or  say  something  that  would  be  mortifying. 

210 


Little  Miss  Dee 


So  Archibald,  somewhat  more  than  half- 
convinced  that  a  great  deal  of  his  wife's 
argument  was  true,  but  ashamed  to  admit 
that  his  mother  was  not  up  to  the  standard 
of  his  friends,  went  off  to  the  Braidwood 
house  to  interview  the  unconscious  lady  in 
dispute.  It  gratified  him  to  see  that  he 
was  received  with  the  usual  demonstra 
tions  of  affection,  for  his  business  and 
social  engagements,  especially  since  the 
little  affair  of  the  stock  market,  had  pre 
vented  him  from  showing  such  attentions 
as  may  be  naturally  expected  from  a  son. 
He  set  forth  the  nature  of  his  errand  with 
an  awkwardness  that  did  not  allay  Agatha's 
suspicions. 

"  Perhaps  I  am  not  quite  up  to  the  ways 
of  your  grand  world,  Archie,"  she  said, 
"but  I  know  enough  to  understand  that  if 
Luella  had  wished  me  to  come  to  her  re 
ception  she  would  not  have  sent  you  with  a 
verbal  message.  But  never  mind,  my 
boy;  such  things  do  not  interest  me  in  the 
smallest  degree,  and  if  I  have  any  grudge 
against  Luella,  it  is  not  because  she  does 

211 


Little  Miss  Dee 


not  ask  me  to  her  social  gatherings,  but 
because  she  is  so  attractive  that  I  see  very 
little  of  you." 

Then  Archibald,  who  was  kindly  at 
heart,  and  who  loved  his  little  mother  as 
much  as  a  man  in  his  position  can  be  ex 
pected  with  reason  to  love,  sat  down  and 
allowed  her  to  pet  him,  and  to  tell  him  how 
many  fine  things  she  had  heard  about  him, 
and  how  he  was  sure  to  make  a  great  stir 
in  the  world,  and  what  a  source  of  pleasure 
and  comfort  he  had  been  and  always  would 
be  to  her.  And  if  she  rambled  a  little  in 
her  talk,  and  showed  occasionally  strange 
lapses  of  memory,  he  was  too  absorbed  to 
notice  such  small  details.  When  a  man  is 
conscious  that  he  has  discharged  an  impor 
tant  duty,  and  has  stood  loyally  and  nobly 
by  his  mother,  he  may  be  forgiven  if  he 
overlooks  the  minor  matters  of  filial  affec 
tion.  Had  he  not  vindicated  himself  in 
the  position  he  had  taken?  Had  he  not 
shown  Luella  that  however  she  might  argue 
he  would  not  be  swerved  from  his  filial  pur 
pose?  In  the  desultory  conversation  noth- 

212 


Little  Miss  Dee 


ing  was  said  of  the  transaction  in  stocks, 
the  woman  was  too  generous  to  approach 
a  subject  that  might  bring  pain,  the  man 
presumably  too  considerate  to  worry  his 
mother  with  a  recital  of  business  troubles 
which  she  could  not  understand  and  which 
happily  had  passed.  He  spoke  of  her 
health  and  of  her  condition;  he  expressed 
the  greatest  interest  in  her  welfare,  and  he 
went  even  so  far  as  to  intimate  that  any 
thing  he  could  do  for  her  further  comfort 
would  be  cheerfully  done.  And  so,  having 
discharged  his  obligation,  eased  his  con 
science,  and  put  himself  unequivocally  in 
the  right,  Archibald  gave  voice  to  his  regret 
at  Agatha's  unalterable  decision,  impressed 
a  filial  kiss  on  her  cheek,  and  departed. 
Three  days  later  the  reception  came  off  as 
duly  advertised,  and  was  justly  pronounced 
the  crowning  glory  of  the  season. 

Meanwhile,  John  Wrantham,  who  was 
by  profession  a  lawyer  and  by  nature  an 
honest  man,  and  who  despised  cant  and 
pretense  with  all  the  vigor  of  his  fearless 
soul,  stewed  and  fumed  under  the  ban  of 
213 


Little  Miss  Dee 


secrecy  which  had  been  put  upon  him. 
Mrs.  Wrantham  had  been  one  of  the  guests 
at  the  reception,  and  her  extravagant 
praises  of  that  notable  function  had  stirred 
her  husband  to  the  direst  wrath,  much  to 
the  good  woman's  amazement.  And  when 
she  happened  to  say,  honestly,  but  un 
guardedly,  that  it  was  very  diplomatic  on 
the  part  of  Luella  not  to  invite  her  hus 
band's  mother,  for  she  is  such  a  frump, 
poor  Wrantham  went  almost  apoplectic  in 
his  disgust,  and  behaved  in  a  manner  that 
excited  for  the  time  just  apprehension  as 
to  his  sanity. 

The  world  had  now  adjusted  itself,  just 
as  the  gentle  reader  would  desire.  Youth, 
ambition,  the  pride  of  life,  the  hope  of  the 
nation  in  the  younger  generation,  the  bul 
wark  of  our  fashionable  social  fabric — all 
were  prosperous,  happy,  admired,  re 
spected.  What  did  it  matter  that  up  in 
the  top  story  of  a  respectable  boarding- 
house  an  old  maid  was  dragging  out  the 
few  years  left  to  her?  Her  day  had 
passed,  her  opportunities  had  gone.  Away 
214 


Little  Miss  Dee 


with  all  thoughts  of  these  impediments  to 
glorious  enterprises  and  of  these  hangers-on 
in  the  march  of  human  progress!  Give 
room  to  the  people  of  action,  the  forces  of 
accomplishment ! 

Happily  it  was  not  given  to  Agatha 
Dee  to  know  that  she  was  no  longer  of 
importance  to  the  calculations  of  any 
human  being.  It  had  not  been  revealed 
to  her  in  a  vision  or  told  to  her  by  human 
lips  that  she  was  living,  but  inconsequen 
tial,  breathing,  but  not  under  consideration. 
As  long  as  she  could  find  the  small  amount 
of  money  necessary  to  pay  for  her  room 
and  food  she  would  be  permitted  to  be 
counted  in  the  national  and  municipal  cen 
sus;  furtner  than  this  she  could  have  no 
reasonable  expectation  of  recognition. 
These  human  fossils,  these  decaying  left 
overs  of  humanity,  are  so  tiresome.  Poor 
old  Agatha  Dee! 

But  poor  old  Agatha  Dee  was  not  miser 
able;  she  was  not  even  unhappy  as  human 
ity  goes.  She  lived  contentedly  in  the 
upper  story,  and  when  the  birds  sang  and 
215 


Little  Miss  Dee 


the  sun  shone,  and  the  flowers  in  her  win 
dow-box  smiled  and  nodded  in  the  sunlight, 
she  rejoiced  that  she  was  a  part  of  such  a 
beautiful  world.  And  when  the  winter 
came  on  with  its  fierceness,  and  the  wind 
howled,  and  the  snow  flew,  and  from  her 
window  she  could  see  the  great  waves  of 
the  lake  dashing  up  against  the  shore,  she 
gave  thanks  that  she  was  provided  with  so 
snug^a  home,  and  that  all  things  had  been 
made  so  cozy  and  comfortable  for  her. 
Happy  Agatha  Dee! 


216 


IT  was  whispered  about  in  the  dining- 
room  and  wherever  the  members  of 
Mrs.  Braidwood's  select  family  of  boarders 
gathered  together  that  there  was  a  gradual 
tendency  toward  stronger  peculiarities  in 
Agatha  Dee  which  they  could  not  quite 
explain.  In  many  ways  she  was  the  same 
— cheerful,  uncomplaining,  pleased  with 
whatever  was  done  for  her,  and  contented 
with  what  came.  But  strange  caprices 
seemed  to  dominate  her;  at  times  she 
would  seek  solitude  for  hours,  and  whoever 
passed  her  door  could  hear  her  talking  and 
sometimes  laughing  to  herself,  apparently 
addressing  her  own  image,  as  if  conveying 
secrets  of  the  utmost  importance.  And  at 
such  times  the  boarders  would  look  at  one 
another  and  tap  their  foreheads  significantly 
and  say  what  a  pity  it  was  that  Little  Miss 
Dee  was  growing  so  queer.  Miss  Parsons, 
who  was  as  grievously  disturbed  as  a 
woman  born  to  and  expecting  trouble  can 
217 


Little  Miss  Dee 


be  disturbed,  related  to  Mrs.  Braidwood 
that  Agatha's  mother  had  been  very  like 
her,  and  that  her  father  was  always  eccen 
tric,  but  that  notwithstanding  the  discour 
aging  symptoms  no  harm  ever  came  from 
them;  it  was  merely  the  extraordinary 
family  way. 

There  were  times  also  when  Agatha 
would  sit  at  her  window  for  hours  and  look 
out  upon  the  water,  and  watch  the  great 
steamers  as  they  came  slowly  into  port, 
and  once  when  she  was  rallied  on  the  whim, 
and  asked  what  she  found  so  fascinating 
in  the  spectacle,  she  replied,  with  all  seri 
ousness,  that  she  often  wondered  if  some 
body  on  board  might  not  be  coming  to  see 
her,  and  she  had  thought  how  pleasant  it 
would  be  to  be  summoned  to  the  parlor  by 
the  news  that  a  stranger  had  arrived  on  the 
boat,  and  had  driven  up  in  a  carriage  to 
inquire  for  Miss  Dee.  When  young  Per 
kins,  who  went  to  Europe  twice  a  year  for 
a  large  importing  house,  and  who  was 
given  to  flashy  waistcoats  and  an  explosive 
manner  of  talking,  heard  this,  he  was 
218 


Little  Miss  Dee 


moved  in  his  honest  heart,  and  vowed  that 
after  his  next  voyage  he  would  carry  out 
the  programme  to  the  letter,  and  would 
drive  up  in  the  best  state  imaginable,  and 
in  the  finest  carriage  he  could  hire,  and  ask 
for  Miss  Dee.  Perkins  was  so  good- 
hearted  that  he  had  the  reputation  in  the 
higher  circles  of  society  of  being  a  rather 
vulgar  fellow. 

As  the  days  went  on  it  occurred  to 
Agatha  that  she  was  not  living  in  the 
manner  that  would  be  approved  by  Archi 
bald  and  Luella.  She  admitted  in  a  long 
and  confidential  talk  with  Mrs.  Braidwood 
that  she  was  perfectly  satisfied  with  her 
room  and  surroundings,  and  that  under 
existing  conditions  she  had  no  immediate 
intention  of  changing  them;  still  she  be 
lieved  it  was  her  serious  duty  to  try  to 
conform  to  those  exactions  which  would  be 
naturally  put  upon  a  woman  with  such 
aristocratic  connections.  Accordingly  she 
felt  that  in  future  she  must  have  a  regular 
reception  day,  and  she  explained  further 
that  she  would  be  greatly  obliged  to  Mrs. 
219 


Little  Miss  Dee 


Braidwood  if  she  could  be  permitted  to  use 
a  part  of  the  large  drawing-room  for  this 
purpose.  Mrs.  Braidwood,  who  was  also 
good-hearted  to  the  point  of  vulgarity, 
cordially  assented,  and  thereupon  went 
about  her  regular  duties  shedding  a  few 
sympathetic  and  middle-class  tears. 

The  importance  of  this  undertaking  ap 
pealed  mightily  to  Agatha  Dee.  How 
gratified  Archibald  would  be  when  he 
learned  that  his  little  mother  was  living  up 
as  far  as  possible  to  the  standards  of 
Luella  and  her  friends,  and  making  an 
honest  effort  to  adapt  her  simple  tastes  to 
rigorous  conventions.  Perhaps  even  Luella 
might  be  pleased,  and — who  could  tell? — 
perhaps  in  time  her  grand  carriage  might 
roll  up  to  the  door  and  be  seen  of  all  the 
neighbors.  A  year  ago  this  honor  might 
not  have  appealed  so  strongly  to  Agatha, 
but  that  was  a  year  ago;  she  was  wiser 
now,  and  older,  too,  and  her  heart  was 
lonely,  and  it  seemed  to  her  in  the  evening 
of  the  tragedy  of  life  that  we  must  forget 
the  little  differences  of  our  impetuous  and 

220 


Little  Miss  Dee 


unthinking  years,   and  draw  more  closely 
to  those  who  should  be  bound  to  us. 

So  Little  Miss  Dee  named  Thursday  as 
her  reception  day,  and  eagerly  arrayed  her 
self  for  the  initial  solemnity.  And  if  any 
woman  of  a  kindly  instinct  could  have  seen 
her  as  she  put  on  her  receiving  gown,  she 
would  not  have  had  the  heart  to  tell  her 
that  her  costume  was  pathetic  to  the 
border  of  the  tragic.  Ten  minutes  before 
the  hour  she  went  into  the  drawing-room, 
communing  eagerly  and  expectantly  with 
herself  as  she  passed  down  the  stairs,  and 
sat  and  waited.  The  door  bell  rang  and 
ladies  were  ushered  in;  other  women  of 
the  house  came  down  to  receive  their 
friends,  and  the  afternoon  shadows  length 
ened  into  twilight,  but  nobody  asked  for 
Agatha  Dee.  Wearily  she  went  back  as 
she  came,  explaining  to  herself  the  reason 
of  the  failure  of  the  afternoon,  and  stop 
ping  before  the  mirror  on  the  landing  of 
the  stairs  to  confide  to  her  reflection  the 
excuse  that  doubtless  her  friends  had  not 
yet  learned  that  this  was  her  reception 

221 


Little  Miss  Dee 


day,  and  that  it  would  be  the  better  at 
tended  next  week. 

But  the  second  week  was  like  the  first, 
and  the  third  like  the  second,  yet  Agatha, 
conscious  that  she  was  discharging  her 
duty  to  Archibald  and  society,  pertina 
ciously  hung  on.  Then  Mrs.  Braidwood, 
unable  to  stand  the  strain  on  her  kindly 
feelings,  hatched  an  amiable  conspiracy 
among  the  ladies  of  the  house,  and  easily 
prevailed  upon  them  to  send  in  their  cards 
at  various  hours  of  the  afternoon  to  the 
end  that  Agatha  might  be  benevolently 
humbugged.  And  Perkins — vulgar  Perk 
ins!  with  his  flashy  waistcoats  and  his 
" Between  you  and  I" — came  home  from 
the  store  an  hour  earlier  that  he  might  be 
a  party  to  this  wicked  plot,  and  add  a  little 
sunshine  to  a  human  life. 

These  acts  of  remembrance  and  pity, 
however  honorable  to  the  perpetrators,  had 
no  significance  beyond  natural  kindliness 
to  Agatha  Dee.  Her  only  thought  was 
that  this  is  a  very  just  and  appreciative 
and  beautiful  world,  and  that  she  could 

222 


Little  Miss  Dee 


never  sufficiently  repay  the  kindnesses  that 
were  showered  upon  her.  And  why 
should  she  not  be  happy?  Was  she  not 
living  in  a  comfortable  home,  surrounded 
by  good  people  who  were  all  consideration 
and  gentleness?  Was  she  not  the  mother 
of  a  man,  still  young,  who  was  greatly 
esteemed  in  the  high  business  and  social 
circles  in  which  he  moved?  Did  he  not 
with  filial  tenderness  come  to  see  her  as 
often  as  his  imperative  engagements  would 
permit — sometimes  even  twice  in  a  single 
week?  And  Little  Miss  Dee's  voice  would 
tremble  and  her  lips  would  quiver  as  she 
would  declare  with  gratitude  that  a  woman 
must  be  deficient,  indeed,  if  she  could  not 
be  happy  with  such  accumulated  blessings. 
And  there  were  other  times  when  her 
mind  was  clouded  and  when  the  ghosts 
would  come  from  the  distant  country  and 
walk  before  her  and  talk  to  her  of  the  joy 
of  youth  and  the  long  ago.  And  then  the 
world  would  be  still  more  radiant,  and  to 
the  pleasure  of  reality  would  be  added  the 
happiness  of  dreaming,  and  in  the  hours  of 
223 


Little  Miss  Dee 


elusive  fancy  it  was  easy  to  believe  that 
those  who  had  gone  before  were  merely  in 
some  pleasant  far-off  land,  to  be  reached 
by  ordinary  postal  service.  At  such  times 
Little  Miss  Dee,  always  with  a  sense  of 
her  responsibilities,  would  sit  at  her  desk 
and  write  letters  full  of  hope  and  cheerful 
ness,  which,  through  some  unexplained  pro 
cess,  would  invariably  find  their  way  in  an 
unfinished  state  to  a  great  drawer  of  mis 
cellaneous  manuscript,  and  so  be  forgotten. 
On  the  anniversary  of  Herbert  Ainslie's 
death  Agatha  was  wandering  in  this  strange 
and  pleasant  country,  and  wondering  why 
he  had  not  written  to  her,  and  what  he 
could  be  doing  to  remain  so  long  silent. 
She  remembered  confusedly  that  once 
before  he  had  gone  away  from  her,  and 
years  had  passed  in  forgetfulness;  but  that 
was  when  they  were  both  young  and 
thoughtless — for  what  are  pledges  in  the 
frivolity  of  youth? — before  he  had  sailed 
on  his  last  voyage.  She  was  looking  out  of 
the  window  at  the  water  and  the  steamer 
leaving  the  port,  just  as  it  seemed  to  her 
224 


Little  Miss  Dee 


misty  mind  she  had  seen  him  sail  away — 
had  she  not  been  with  him,  and  had  he  not 
told  her  she  must  always  be  near  him? 
How  well  she  recalled  that  conversation, 
and  how  she  had  tried  to  cheer  him  when 
his  fears  were  strongest  and  when  he 
lamented  because  he  was  leaving  her  alone. 
Perhaps  even  now  he  was  despondent  and 
troubled,  and  longing  to  hear  from  her. 
With  this  recollection  strong  upon  her,  she 
wrote: 

If  you  only  could  have  heard  the  kind  and  ap 
preciative  words  that  were  said  of  you  after  that  sad 
day  you  left  us,  you  would  be  sorry  that  you  judged 
the  world  and  the  people  so  harshly.  I  hope  when 
it  comes  our  time  to  die,  Herbert,  our  friends  may 
still  be  as  good  and  generous.  In  the  sensitiveness 
of  your  nature  you  thought  that  the  world  had  for 
gotten  you;  you  could  not  understand,  as  I  know 
now,  that  we  must  put  our  friends  to  the  test  some 
times  and  go  on  long,  long  journeys  before  we  learn 
that  friendship  or  affection  is  not  to  be  judged  by  the 
ordinary  standards  of  acquaintance,  and  that  those 
from  whom  we  expect  the  least  may  give  us  the  most. 

I  have  missed  you  sadly,  Herbert,  and  I  shall 
miss  you  until  you  come  back  to  us,  but  I  am  not 
unhappy  for  everybody  is  so  good  to  me  and  looks 
after  me,  and  my  only  regret  is  that  I  have  nobody 
who  can  talk  with  me  of  our  beautiful  past  in  the  old 
225 


Little  Miss  Dee 


home  with  the  old  scenes.  How  much  I  shall  have 
to  say  to  you  when  we  meet ! 

You  will  be  glad  to  know  that  Archibald  is  just  as 
affectionate  and  thoughtful  as  ever,  and  that  every 
body  praises  him  and  speaks  enthusiastically  of  his 
prospects.  We  made  no  mistake  when  we  finally 
settled  on  him  to  fulfill  the  prophecy.  That  proph 
ecy!  How  we  have  laughed  at  it  in  the  foolish 
younger  days,  and  how  little  we  knew  that  in  time  its 
strength  and  certainty  would  appeal  to  us  and  its 
prediction  would  be  verified.  And  to  think  that  I 
should  have  been  thought  of  in  connection  with  any 
heroic  achievement  while  my  boy  was  living !  We 
can  well  afford  to  laugh  at  that  phase  of  it  now  that 
he  is  about  to  take  the  responsibility  off  iny  poor 
feeble  hands. 

It  is  such  a  beautiful  day,  Herbert,  and  I  find  my 
eyes  wandering  from  the  paper  to  the  view  out  of  the 
window.  The  impulse  is  so  strong  on  me  that  I 
must  certainly  go  to  the  park.  How  I  wish  you  were 
here  to  go  with  me.  It  was  just  such  a  day  as  this 
when  we  went  together  the  summer  before  you  sailed 
away.  Why  is  it  that  on  such  days  I  am  always 
thinking  of  our  childhood  'and  the  old  home,  the 
beautiful  river  running  below  the  elms,  the  evenings 
we  passed  at  the  foot  of  the  garden,  and  the — 


226 


IN  the  general  estimation— and  who  does 
not  defer  obsequiously  to  the  general 
estimation? — John  Wrantham,  attorney  at 
law,  was  a  particularly  hard-headed  man  of 
business,  not  given  to  outbursts  of  senti 
ment  or  appreciably  affected  by  romantic 
considerations.  If  this  opinion  had  been 
expressed  to  Mr.  Wrantham,  he  would 
have  regarded  himself  flattered,  for  your 
particularly  hard-headed  man  of  business, 
strangely  enough,  is  not  disposed  to  be 
proud  of  the  kinder  emotions  which  are 
happily  the  saving  grace  of  his  life.  Yet 
Mr.  Wrantham  was  compelled  to  admit  to 
himself,  however  he  may  have  endeavored 
to  conceal  it  from  the  world,  that  he  was 
greatly  moved  by  the  incident  that  had 
claimed  his  professional  attention,  and  that 
his  reputation,  so  far  as  his  personal  feeling 
was  concerned,  was  at  stake.  He  had 
never  wholly  recovered  from  the  burst  of 
admiration  excited  by  what  he  chose  to 
227 


Little  Miss  Dee 


consider  the  exact  fulfillment  of  the  family 
prophecy,  and  while  in  the  abstract  he 
abhorred  prophecies  as  a  futile  supersti 
tion,  he  was  inclined  to  look  upon  the 
augury  of  the  Dees  as  an  interesting  phe 
nomenon  which  could  not  be  interpreted 
by  any  strictly  legal  rules.  Now  that  the 
prophecy  had  been  fully  vindicated,  Mr. 
Wrantham  argued  that  all  obligation  to  the 
gypsy  lady  and  the  family  superstition  was 
ended,  and  that  it  was  clearly  his  duty  and 
right,  as  a  lawyer  and  promoter  of  justice, 
to  see  that  no  undue  suffering  should  fall 
upon  the  innocent. 

In  a  diplomatic  and  unobtrusive  way  Mr. 
Wrantham  had  kept  an  eye  on  Agatha, 
safeguarding  her  interests  wherever  pos 
sible,  and  showing  such  little  kindnesses  as 
were  in  his  power.  He  had  been  pro 
foundly  stirred  by  the  development  of  her 
malady,  and  he  spent  many  hours  debating 
with  himself  the  reasonableness  of  consid 
ering  at  an  end  the  bond  of  silence  imposed 
upon  him.  Unfortunately  for  his  own 
wishes,  he  saw  his  client  only  in  her  per- 
228 


Little  Miss  Dee 


fectly  rational  moments,  when  all  sugges 
tions  for  a  complete  understanding  with 
Archibald  brought  forth  positive  refusal 
with  an  appeal  for  the  sanctity  of  the  com 
pact.  And  Mr.  Wrantham  would  yield 
the  point  with  great  reluctance,  contending 
strenuously  that  the  position  was  not  only 
unbusinesslike,  but  an  encouragement  of 
irresponsibility.  At  which  Agatha  would 
smile  and  shake  her  head  as  one  entitled 
to  have  the  greatest  confidence  in  human 
nature. 

But  if  John  Wrantham  could  not  produce 
the  desired  impression  on  Agatha,  he  could 
at  least  make  a  little  headway  with  Archi 
bald,  to  whom  he  represented  that  the 
anonymous  friend  and  preserver,  while  not 
wishing  to  put  him  to  unnecessary  trouble, 
would  consider  it  a  good  business  indica 
tion  if  he  would  pave  the  way  to  a  partial 
settlement  as  early  as  possible.  And 
Archibald,  who  was  an  honorable  man  in 
such  small  affairs,  despite  his  obligations 
to  the  higher  circles  which  he  adorned, 
agreed  that  this  was  only  fair,  and  that  he 
229 


Little  Miss  Dee 


would  bend  his  energies  to  this  purpose. 
With  this  Mr.  Wrantham  was  compelled 
perforce  to  be  content,  though  the  delay 
on  the  one  hand  and  the  absolute  refusal 
to  press  matters  on  the  other,  were  con 
stantly  harassing  his  business  principles. 

It  was  also  not  a  little  through  Mr. 
Wrantham 's  influence  that  Archibald — 
who  was  a  busy  man — tore  himself  away 
from  his  many  exacting  pursuits  and  gave 
several  hours  each  week  to  the  little 
mother,  who  looked  longingly  for  his  com 
ing,  yet  found  excuses  for  him  in  his 
absence.  The  reports  of  her  mental  con 
dition  had  given  Archibald  much  solicitude, 
and  he  had  discussed  with  Luella  the  pro 
priety  and  humanity  of  giving  her  a  home 
with  them,  that  she  might  receive  more 
constant  and  loving  attention  during  her 
terms  of  flightiness,  but  that  amiable  and 
prudent  lady  had  easily  shown  the  impos 
sibility  of  such  a  step,  and  Archibald  had 
been  convinced,  and  had  not  allowed  his 
heart  to  dominate  his  judgment.  To  this 
many  other  prominent  and  successful  citi- 
230 


Little  Miss  Dee 


zens  have  correctly  attributed  their  steady 
rise  in  life. 

And  so  in  a  smooth  and  monotonous 
way  the  life  of  Agatha  Dee  progressed. 
Winter  was  coming  on,  the  flowers  in  the 
window-boxes  were  dead,  and  the  waves  of 
the  lake  came  rolling  in  with  greater  force. 
No  answer  had  come  from  the  far-off  coun 
tries,  and  the  friends  to  whom  Agatha  had 
written,  but  the  silence,  at  which  she  some 
times  wondered,  made  no  more  than  a 
fleeting  impression,  and  the  less  shadowy 
trials  were  staunchly  borne  by  that  brave 
heart  and  tranquil  spirit.  The  world  was 
still  unchangeably  beautiful,  and  humanity 
had  lost  nothing  of  its  goodness.  Late  in 
December  Agatha  had  gone  on  a  journey 
of  unusual  length,  returning  mysteriously 
each  evening  to  confide  to  Miss  Parsons 
fragments  of  the  conversations  she  had  held 
with  her  father  and  Herbert  Ainslie,  and 
the  friends  of  her  youth  now  living  in  a 
mystic  land.  And  Miss  Parsons  had  lis 
tened  loyally  to  the  wonderful  tales  she  told, 
and  had  humored  her  in  her  glowing  fan- 
231 


Little  Miss  Dee 


cies,  only  to  weep  alone  at  the  pathos  of  so 
much  happiness. 

The  day  before  Christmas,  while  Agatha 
was  busily  writing  to  the  spirits  of  those  in 
whom  her  thoughts  were  centered,  Miss 
Parsons  slipped  away  and  went  down  to 
Mr.  Wrantham's  office  and  laid  the  whole 
case  before  him  with  the  precision  of  her 
New  England  nature,  not  hesitating  to  tell 
him  what  should  be  done.  And  Mr. 
Wrantham,  who  had  even  more  cause  for 
precipitation  than  Miss  Parsons,  wiped  his 
spectacles  while  he  swallowed  the  lump  in 
his  throat,  and  formed  his  resolution  on 
the  minute.  Of  what  use  were  promises 
at  such  a  time?  What  mattered  it  that  he 
had  given  his  word  of  loyalty  to  an  unwise 
compact?  In  all  this  world  there  is  only 
one  thing  fixed,  immutable,  unswerving — 
justice.  To  the  lawyer's  mind  there  was 
no  other  consideration,  yet  how  much  more 
appealing  is  justice  when  it  goes  hand  in 
hand  with  humanity.  Even  John  Wran 
tham  must  have  admitted  that. 

It  had  been  the  custom  of  the  Dees — so 
232 


Little  Miss  Dee 


the  family  tradition  went — to  make  much 
of  the  Christmas  festival,  and  as  far  back 
as  Agatha  could  remember  there  was  great 
festivity  at  Christmas  time,  with  holly  and 
mistletoe,  an  immense  tree  loaded  down 
with  gifts  and  remembrances,  and  a  whole 
week  of  cheer  and  jollity.  With  each  re 
curring  Christmas  Agatha  had  seen  the 
circle  narrowing,  but  every  year  she  clung 
loyally  to  the  family  custom,  and  was  filled 
with  the  gracious  spirit  of  the  season.  And 
what  more  natural  than  that  in  this  pleas 
ant  year  of  spiritual  reunion  she  should  feel 
more  strongly  than  ever  the  ruling  ardor  of 
Christmastide  and  should  make  her  plans 
for  a  celebration  of  more  than  ordinary 
magnitude?  She  would  not  let  anybody 
into  her  secret;  she  was  too  cunning  for 
that.  This  was  to  be  her  surprise,  her  own 
individual  effort,  and  what  happiness  there 
would  be  on  Christmas  morning  when  the 
whole  innocent  plot  was  revealed  and  the 
company  of  friends  trooped  to  her  room  to 
admire  her  tree  and  share  its  splendor. 
At  such  a  time  would  it  not  be  possible 
233 


Little  Miss  Dee 


that  even  the  proud  Luella  would  come, 
and  that  everything  would  be  forgiven  and 
forgotten  while  she  joined  in  the  remem 
brances  of  the  happy  day?  Perhaps  the 
gentle  spirit  of  Christmas  would  soften  her, 
and  perhaps  it  might  come  about  that  all 
these  months  of  coldness  and  separation 
were  merely  a  subterfuge  to  test  the 
strength  of  Agatha* s  character  and  to  teach 
her  a  lesson  in  humility  and  patience. 
Yes,  provision  should  be  made  for  this 
woman  who  may  have  been  greatly  misun 
derstood.  How  strange  it  was  to  Agatha 
that  this  had  never  come  to  her  before. 

But  the  magnitude  of  the  undertaking 
soon  convinced  Little  Miss  Dee  that  it  was 
necessary  to  have  a  confederate,  and  who 
so  available  and  trustworthy  as  small 
Eleanor,  the  pretty  child  who  lived  on  the 
second  floor,  and  who  often  climbed  to  the 
fourth  story  to  talk  over  her  childish 
troubles  with  the  sympathetic  old  maid? 
Eleanor  was  young  and  quick  and  cunning 
for  her  years,  and  it  would  be  the  easiest 
thing  in  the  world  to  smuggle  in  the  Christ- 
234 


Little  Miss  Dee 


mas  tree  unobserved  by  the  neighbors. 
Even  if  the  child  were  observed,  suspicion 
would  not  be  excited;  such  was  the  pleas 
ing  power  of  Agatha's  fancy.  For  she 
was  living  in  the  wildness  and  madness  of 
fairy  land,  and  at  the  Christmas  time  all 
the  fairies  conspire  to  blind  the  eyes  of 
those  who  should  not  see  and  to  work  in 
harmony  with  the  children  and  with  those 
who  have  slipped  back  to  childhood. 

Thus  it  happened  that  the  small  Eleanor 
tramped  up  and  down  the  stairs  on  her 
mysterious  mission,  observed  by  everybody 
and  understood  by  all.  Yet  nobody  ques 
tioned  her,  for  the  conspiracy  in  the  old 
maid's  room  was  a  common  secret,  and  the 
pitying  impulse  forbade  the  breaking  of  the 
spell.  And  it  was  agreed  in  a  counterplot 
that  Agatha  should  have  such  a  Christmas 
as  seldom  falls  to  the  human  lot,  and  there 
was  much  consultation  with  great  parleying, 
and  the  entire  household,  from  vulgar 
Perkins  at  the  first  table  to  the  humble 
scrub  girl  in  the  kitchen,  eagerly  brought 
gifts  to  heap  around  Agatha's  chair  in  the 
235 


Little  Miss  Dee 


breakfast-room  and  to  testify  to  the  lovable 
influence  of  that  gentle  life. 

So  early  in  the  eventful  evening  before 
Christmas  small  Eleanor  slipped  away 
from  those  who  were  furtively  and  curi 
ously  watching  her  and  ran  up  the  stairs  to 
the  secret  chamber  to  assist  in  the  final 
arrangements  as  had  been  planned.  She 
found  Little  Miss  Dee  standing  before  her 
tree  with  the  red  glow  of  happiness  on  her 
face  and  a  brilliant  light  in  her  eye.  Who 
would  not  have  been  happy  at  such  a 
sight?  There  stood  the  tree,  towering 
three  feet  high,  with  its  shining  balls  and 
colored  candles,  fantastically  trimmed  with 
the  oddest  and  most  bewildering  shades  of 
ribbon  and  loaded  down  with  souvenirs  that 
might  have  come  from  the  magic  trunk  of 
centuries  gone  by.  The  child  hesitated  at 
the  doorway.  Something  seemed  to  tell 
her  that  all  her  own  work  had  vanished, 
that  she  was  no  longer  a  part  of  this 
Christmas,  that  the  world  had  rolled  back 
and  away  from  her,  and  that  she  had  no 
place  in  this  strange  land. 
236 


Little  Miss  Dee 


"Come  in,  Eleanor,"  cried  Little  Miss 
Dee.  "There  is  so  much  to  do,  and  we 
have  no  time  to  lose.  They  will  all  be 
here  in  the  morning,  and  we  must  be 
ready.  Here  are  the  pictures  of  father 
and  mother  and  Herbert.  Take  them  and 
place  them  around  the  tree  where  they  will 
be  in  full  view.  They  will  be  so  pleased 
when  they  see  how  carefully  I  have  pre 
served  them. '  * 

"But,  Miss  Dee,"  faltered  the  child, 
"you  didn't  tell  me  about  them.  I  didn't 
know  you  were  expecting  anybody  away 
from  the  house  except  Mr.  Archibald  and 
his  wife.  And  we  haven't  any  presents 
for  them." 

"O,  yes  we  have,"  said  Agatha,  tri 
umphantly.  "I  must  have  told  you  about 
them  and  you  have  forgotten.  The  pres 
ents  are  here,  as  you  shall  see.  Do  you 
think  I  could  let  a  Christmas  go  by  with 
out  remembering  my  own  family?" 

The  child  mechanically  took  up  and  dis 
tributed  the  pictures  as  she  was  directed — 
strange,  old-fashioned  pictures,  dim  and 
'37 


Little  Miss  Dee 


faded  in  battered  cases,  grotesque  enough 
to  this  little  modern  child  who  marveled  at 
their  oddity.  Little  Miss  Dee  took  one  of 
them  from  her,  the  ambrotype  of  a  boy 
just  coming  into  manhood,  with  an  honest, 
open  face,  and  a  strong  figure,  stiff  and 
uncomfortable  in  the  pose  and  quaint  in 
the  severity  of  costume.  A  tenderer  light 
came  into  the  old  maid's  eyes  as  she  looked 
at  it. 

"You  have  never  seen  Mr.  Ainslie," 
she  said;  "he  is  older  now,  but  you  will 
recognize  him  at  once  from  this  picture, 
and  I  hope  you  will  like  him  as  much  as  I 
know  he  will  like  you. ' ' 

"Why,  I — I  thought  Mr.  Ainslie  was — " 
and  the  word  mercifully  died  on  her  lips. 

"You  thought  he  was  not  coming/'  in 
terrupted  Agatha,  with  a  smile,  "but  he 
is.  I  wrote  to  him  that  he  must  come. 
And  I  have  a  present  for  him,  too,"  she 
added,  mysteriously,  "which  I  shall  give 
him  with  my  own  hand.  I  promised  him 
as  much. ' ' 

The  child  walked  uneasily  around  the 
238 


Little  Miss  Dee 


tree.  Had  she  not  been  a  child  she  would 
have  known  that  the  room  at  that  moment 
was  filled  with  ghosts — harmless,  tender, 
loving  ghosts — who  had  come  back  from 
the  shadows  to  gladden  an  old  maid's 
Christmas  eve  and  fill  her  thoughts  with  a 
happiness  long  past.  Even  as  it  was,  she 
felt  some  strange  influence  at  work  so 
much  at  variance  with  her  expectations  of 
the  evening  and  the  trimming  of  the  tree. 
And  Agatha,  wrapped  up  in  her  own  fan 
cies,  forgot  her  presence. 

"I  wonder  which  will  come  first — Her 
bert  or  Archie/'  she  whispered.  "I  won 
der  which  will  be  more  anxious  to  see  me. 
Of  course  father  will  be  stirring  about  long 
before  the  rest;  it  was  always  his  way. 
Dear  old  father,  how  happy  he  will  be 
when  he  hears  how  nobly  Archie  is  fulfill 
ing  the  prophecy,  and  how  he  will  thank 
me  for  bringing  it  about.  But  I  shall  tease 
him  for  presuming  to  think  that  I  was 
strong  or  clever  enough  to  take  a  man's 
burden." 

"Miss  Dee,"  said  the  child,  timidly, 
239 


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